Telus ADSL (and Telecommunications debates)

[BimmerGirl]

Does anyone know if there's any promotion on installing Telus ADSL ? My friend told me I could get free ADSL modem rental from Telus a while ago.. not sure if that's still available. Anybody know?

[jdmakkord]

Call telus, or try telus.com
chances are that the answer to your question lies there.

[/////AMG]

I don't knwo which store it was but the modem was basically FREE, its $70.00 but they had a 70 buck mail in rebate. Plus, you only pay $16/months for the first 6 months.

[BimmerGirl]

Originally posted by Porsche_944
I don't knwo which store it was but the modem was basically FREE, its $70.00 but they had a 70 buck mail in rebate. Plus, you only pay $16/months for the first 6 months.

That's what I read from the website. There's a rebate. But there wasn't much info on the rebate on the website so I don't know what that applies to and when the rebate ends. Erm........

[Ben]

PM me your contact info, I'll have someone get back to you shortly regarding the offer.

[YCB]

look the in the future shop paper.. i think u can buy a modem for like $65.99 and then u get 6 months for 16 bux..

does telus have a bandwitch cap??

[prosh]

Its not a bandwidth cap, you basically pay for the speeds you want. I know their residential plans start w/ 1.5 mbits down and 512 kbits up. As for Telus's low introductory prices, it is a result of losing huge market share to Shaw over the past year.

The only real advantage you have going with Telus over Shaw is if you only surf the web and casually download, saving a few bux every month with Telus DSL is for you.

[jdmakkord]

Originally posted by prosh
Its not a bandwidth cap, you basically pay for the speeds you want. I know their residential plans start w/ 1.5 mbits down and 512 kbits up. As for Telus's low introductory prices, it is a result of losing huge market share to Shaw over the past year.

The only real advantage you have going with Telus over Shaw is if you only surf the web and casually download, saving a few bux every month with Telus DSL is for you.

You've got it backwards, telus has been playing catchup for the last 5 years. Shaw had a head start on the high speed internet game in Alberta, and Telus has been winning back the market share ever since. In the last 2 years they destroyed shaw in sales for internet.

[mo_virgin]

Telus and Shaw... pretty much same speeds, but Telus is a bitch to deal with and it may not always be available where as shaw is always game.

Telus is alot cheaper too

[GTS Jeff]

go shaw. ive had both...nothing but problems and bad customer service from telus internet. shaw is always up and the customer service has always treated me right.

[prosh]

I'd say go with shaw too.. I've had both and after being screwed around by Telus, then trying nucleus and being happy with them for a bit and ultimately going to shaw was the best choice of the 3.

As for pretty much the same speeds, I really wouldn't call Telus's capped 1.5 mbits down on their base residential plan vs the 3-4 mbits down I get on my shaw a 'same speeds' comparison.

Price wise, yes you save a few bux on the inital sign up w/ telus but in the end, Telus is $34.95 a month vs Shaw's 38.99 a month (both cases if you purchase the modem thru each company).

[djfob]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
go shaw. ive had both...nothing but problems and bad customer service from telus internet. shaw is always up and the customer service has always treated me right.

I think its a matter of what community your in cause I've also had both and i prefer telus's dsl.

[thich]

my dsl works fine in my community.... and i haven't had an issue with telus customer service yet..

[Wrex]

Alright.... well lets play ball....

First let us determine what is downright wrong in this thread and then I will go on to tell you how it is, and then you figure out for yourselves what the best service to go with would be.

First, regarding Telus' various "promotions" I will direct you to this link:

Shaw Asks CRTC to Ensure Fair and Sustainable Competition in the Internet Access Market

Now, that article will provide you with a mostly complete list of Telus 'High Speed' promotions, it is a few weeks old so there are likely to be at least a handful of new ones out there.

Shaw, on the other hand has been offering the same deal to new customers since April of this year:

Purchase a new cable modem for 59.95, Get a Free Professional Install and a Free first month. Then, $8.00 off for the next six months. After seven months, you pay the full price. For standalone Shaw High Speed Internet, this amounts to:

$29.95 for six months, and $37.95 after that. NOT $38.99 (Did you just make that up? I think you did.)

Note for those who actually read the link* $8.00 off is NOT below cost for Shaw.

Once you are finished with one of the many promotions that Telus has, you will end up paying EXACTLY the same price. $37.95. If you are a Telus long distance customer you save $3, making it $34.95. So the LEAST that you can pay for ADSL in the long run is $34.95 per month.

With Shaw, where you really save money is by bundling the High Speed with service that you probably already have. So if you have Satellite, stop here and skip ahead to the technical comparison, if you have Cable keep reading and I'll show you how deep the Rabbit Hole goes....

You have Basic Cable (22.00/mo) You bundle with High Speed for 55.95 -----> 22.00 + 33.95/mo for High Speed. You save $4.00 more, and already you are paying less than ADSL with Long distance discount.

You have FULL cable (44.95/mo) You bundle with High Speed for 74.95 -----> 44.95 + 30/mo for High Speed. You Save $7.95 more, and you are only paying 30/mo for Shaw high speed.

You have DIGITAL cable (44.95/mo+) You bundle with High speed for 30/mo more if you have Movie Central, and 31/mo more if you dont. So you save either 6.95 or 7.95.

So for a quick example, lets say you have Full Cable (Basic + Tiers 1,2,3) and ADSL with no telus long distance. You would pay 44.95 for cable, + 37.95 for DSL. $82.90 per month.

Now if you had the same full cable with Shaw High speed, you would be paying just $74.95/mo. You save $7.95 per month (That amounts to $95.40/year BTW) All of these are regular prices. No special promotions, just standard prices.

So now that we are finished talking about PRICE, which is reason enough to make a decision, we can compare the actual service.

Speed: DSL - 1.5 Mbits (I have this service right now, and it does pretty much always go 1.5 Mbits. 170kB/s give or take a few.)

Shaw - ALWAYS > 1.5 Mbits. Shaw does not state a specific speed of service. I also have Shaw High Speed, (6 people in the house) and it is Always, Always, ALWAYS faster. Any time of day. This also applies to other areas where I have tested both. At home, I get around 4 Mbits + change most of the day (550kB/s) and at PEAK hours, it might drop to a little below 3 Mbits (300kB/s). When you are looking at speeds this fast, the actual server you are downloading from becomes the bottleneck, as most servers will limit you to under 200kB per second. The speed tests that are going to show your actual speed of service will be found on the Shaw troubleshooting page, and will test your connection to the edge of the Shaw network.

http://support.shaw.ca/troubleshooting/speedtest.htm

If you are getting less than 170kB/s on this site, and you are a SHSI customer, there is something wrong with your PC/network/service.

As far as Service goes, the is hardly a comparison. Shaw techies are available 24/7, always. They will help you with ANYTHING, not just your connection. Networking, PC problems, pretty much anything within reason. Telus might give you the time of day if you bitch at them enough and stay on hold long enough. Our DSL goes out more than twice a month, always. In 5 Years of SHSI in both Calgary and Edmonton, I have experienced a grand total of 3 unscheduled outages. THREE, in FIVE years.

Now a few miscellaneous things, SHSI (Shaw High Speed Internet) will not interfere with a Home security system (Dsl often will because it conflicts with the security system's digital connection to the monitoring station) DSL requires a filter on EVERY phone, or else the DSL will not work, Shaw does not use phone lines at all, so no problem there.

And now to kick them while they are down.... the frequency band of cable dedicated to High Speed Internet has the capability to provide service up to 30 (THIRTY) Megabits. That is about 3,500kB/s. Fast enough to download a 4.3 Gigabyte feature length DVD movie in 20 minutes. Or.... if you are so inclined, just watch it streaming, and forget downloading altogether. This technology is being implemented NOW:

Shaw to Deploy Next Generation Cable Modem Technology

The Maximum speed of ADSL technology is 8Mbit/s down, 1Mbit/s Up, over a maximum distance of 5.4km from the switch.

VDSL is available in some US communities at a cost of about $150US/mo and provides a maximum of 50Mbits down, and 8 Mbit/s up, but is limited to 1.2 Kilometres from the switch. This service is not available through Telus at this time nor have plans to implement been announced.

For those of you who are Telus Subscribers and are interested in getting 2-3 times the speed for the same price or less, Shaw is offering the same promotion to DSL customers who own their modems, but without the 59.95 initial charge. You just trade your DSL modem for a cable modem and you are good to go. Free Install, free first month, 6 mo at $8.00 off, and save at least $4.00/mo with any cable bundle.

How do I know all this? It is my job.

If anyone has any questions at all, or wants to sign up for any Shaw service from Basic cable to Digital, Lite Speed internet to High Speed, PM me and I can have the install team to call YOU, no holding or lineups required.

I work for an independent retailer, but we provide access to all Shaw residential services directly through their commercial sales department.

[mo_virgin]

thats very nice...

[GTS Jeff]

whoa all the ppl who are still using dsl just got owned

[jdmakkord]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
whoa all the ppl who are still using dsl just got owned

Not really, since I dont have cable at home(3 satellites) I dont get the discount on shaw, hence my adsl being cheaper.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by jdmakkord


Not really, since I dont have cable at home(3 satellites) I dont get the discount on shaw, hence my adsl being cheaper.

so basically u stopped reading the guys post after he stopped talking about price and started talking about how shaw is way faster, how it never goes down, and how the techs are way better. are u saying that all that good shit isnt worth a couple bucks a month to you?

[Wrex]

So you pay a few dollars less per month..... great. But your service is slower. I guarantee it.

So you pay a few dollars less, and you think that you have owned everyone in your little smart consumer world.

But then you realize that you pay nearly as much money for a service that is going to be anywhere from 1/2 to 1/4 to the speed of Cable. Do the math, is $5 less per month worth 2.5 Megabits less?

[crazyning]

So, how much are you able to download on a monthly basis without getting in trouble with either service provider?