Telus vs. Shaw (cable & internet)

[chibwack]

Hi all, long time lurker, finally decided to register. I did a search and couldn't find anything recent about this. I'll be moving to Calgary in a couple weeks and am trying to decide what service to get for cable and internet, shaw or telus? Price wise, Telus looks like it'll be a bit more expensive over the 12 month period, but also has a lot more channels. Shaw also has no contract afaik.
So any thoughts? Is one service any better than the other, or should I just go for whichever?
(Also, any tips on how to get the bill cut down?)

[benyl]

You don't have to be on contract with TELUS either.

In my neighborhood, TELUS seems better. It is slower, but reliable. SHAW can be faster, but you never hit the advertised speeds. Maybe I have too many porno lurkers in my neighborhood... lol

[supe]

I went from Shaw to Telus, so I can give you a run down on both. Although I have not owned Shaws new devices, the EXO system.

Telus beat Shaw to the central PVR system which was one of my main features I wanted. But I believe Shaw EXO system has this now.

For service I've had great service from both companies. Whenever I had a problem they always treated me well and quick. For quality of the actual service, Shaw blows Telus out of the water as far as high speed, BUT even on 15 Mbps I'm perfectly fine, unless you're doing some super high tech stuff this will be enough for you. I've been told that HD on Shaw is a tiny bit clearer, but I have bad eyes so HD is HD. I think the interface for Telus is nicer to look at and the remote it comes with much better to use than Shaw.

Finally price. A few things play in here. With Telus you can use your XBOX as a digital receiver which can connect to your central PVR. This is pretty sweet, it takes an extra few seconds to get into the TV mode but once you're there its exactly the same as a regular receiver. This cuts down on cost (if you already have an XBOX) and removes one extra device. The contract deal is a good/bad thing. The bad is you're in a contract, the good is it reduces your price. You don't pay anything for your hardware during your contract, but you don't own it either. One of the kickers for me is the free tablet which I LOVE so far, but they also have promotions for free xboxes and free laptops too. As far as month to month prices, I find they're roughly the same, which just depends on which channels you absolutely need.

So I think overall I'm paying less with Telus, I got a free tablet, and the service is about the same or better.

[bulaian]

When you sign up for new service with Shaw, they'll typically give you a heavily discounted rate for 6 months. Something along the lines of high speed internet and HD tv for like $30.

If you can get something like that, I would suggest going with Shaw first, then if you don't like it or the price is too high after the promotion, cancel and go to Telus and get free stuff

[HomespunLobster]

Not a fan of Telus. First we were sold a service they couldn't offer (we bought the 15 mB/s and we could only recieve 3...) because we were too far away from a terminal. Not only were they always late on our initial set up, and 3 service calls, as well as not having internet for 3 weeks, They wanted to charge us a cancellation fee.

After all was done, called shaw and two days later everything was perfectly smooth

[a social dsease]

I just switched from Shaw to Telus.

I'm pretty happy with telus so far.

Internet: Telus is faster (14.8mbps measured, 15 mbps advertised) with shaw I only got 7.5mbps at best (10mbps advertised). Haven't had it go down at all yet, with Shaw I had to reset at least once every couple weeks. Also, the wireless signal is much better - get full strength all over my house and yard, with Shaw I had trouble getting a signal upstairs.

TV: TV is TV, however I like the user interface on telus better. When I signed up I got a free hd box and pvr which I find quite useful - shaw never gave me anything. As well with Shaw I found that certain channels only worked on one TV while the they didn't work on the upstairs TV, and vice versa. With Telus both TV's work the same.

Pricing: Shaw's base rate is higher, but you do get alot of channels. Telus' base rate is cheaper but you don't get many channels; you can add channel packs for $5-$7/month. I think once you buy all the channels it probably adds up to a similar price to Shaw. If you only watch a few channels then you can just buy those and save some $.

As well with Telus when you sign a 3 yr contract you get a free laptop!

I'd definitely go with Telus.

[schocker]

I have been with shaw for years. Have never had any problems with them. Currently have Digital Cable, Home Phone and BB50. At those internet speeds I can never switch

[chibwack]

Dang, it seems like a pretty even split. Online ordering I think the package I wanted came out to $90 with Shaw (no home phone), so I might just have to give them a call and see if they can do better than that. Then I'll pit telus against them

[nashmahallz]

went from shaw to telus.

I prefer shaw. Telus's upload speed is a lot faster, but it lags sometimes, and streaming music over the wifi cuts out a lot, but never did with shaw. That's probably just the router, but telus supplied the router and it's crap.

Bottom line: With Telus I get the 15mbp/s I'm supposed to, but it's choppy sometimes. Shaw wasn't.

[PD77]

What area are you moving to? I have a fiber connection to my house in Panorama Hills with Telus and I've posted speed tests in another thread on here that put me around 65-70mbps...huge difference from the 25 or so I should have.

We switched because Shaw was going to be $60/month than Telus and it just wasn't worth the extra money.

Telus has been great to deal with, only one hiccup and it was resolved right awway.

[D'z Nutz]

Yeah it largely depends on where you're going and the type of connection that's available. I live in a new condo and the entire building's prewired with fibre optic so I have Telus Optik and internet and it's retardedly fast. My mom's house had Telus ADSL internet and it was pretty brutal and unreliable. They switched over to Shaw and it's so much faster.

There is no one all encompassing answer.

I had a lot of hesitations when signing with Telus when I moved into the condo, but they had an offer to new owners where we'd get free Optik and internet for a year with no obligations so I decided to try it out. I was pretty happy with their customer service so after my free year ended, I signed a 3 year contract so I could get a free tablet haha

[PeterGTiR]

we bought the 15 mB/s and we could only recieve 3...

Just so that you're not swayed by this comment, Telus has download speeds of 15Mbps and 25Mbps.

I've had the following services in the past:

-Telus Optik TV with 15Mbps Internet
-Shaw TV with 25Mbps Internet

I can't tell the difference between each service's HDTV quality and the download speeds appeared to be the same for me from Usenet providers.

If you download a lot, I've noticed that Telus does not yet have a cap on downloads whereas Shaw has a cap on each one of their Internet services. I'm not sure what happens when you reach Shaw's cap though.

I would base it whichever could give you a better price without contract.

[chibwack]

I download a lot, pretty much all the time. In edmonton at my university house there was 8 of us all doing it and it was never an issue with Shaw.
I'll be living in an older 8-plex in beltline (14th ave sw), so I'm not convinced it'll be wired for optic.
So yeah, like Peter says, it really is going to come down to price I think. Unless it turns out I'm stuck with ADSL at this place (though maybe even then...)

[anarchy]

Hi chibwack,
I fired you a PM but not sure if you saw it. I'm happy to answer any questions you have about Shaw, I've helped several members on here in the past.

Fire me your contact info and I can get someone to give you a call if you prefer.

[Kavy]

I was one who recently moved and was forced to switch from telus Fiber (was getting 4 HD feeds and around 40mb down) to the new Gateway system on shaw.

The reason for the switch was that fiber is not available at my new house yet. Non Fiber Optik is IMO a waste of money.

A Few things I have noticed:

Upload speed was considerably better on telus, download speeds were more constant but slower (i have BB50 on shaw) Telus never once contacted me and I downloaded a lot, dam near 500-600gb a month. Shaw has yet to contact me but as mentioned above they do cap.

The new gateway system utterly blows away the Optik system when it comes to speed through menus and recording options, 6 HD feeds at once? Yes please. The most recent upgrade fixed the guide and the speed through the guide for me. I also feel IMO that shaw EXO seems to look better then Telus did on HD.

Shaw's supplied router does not play nice with my router making me have to eliminate it and instead use it as a repeater instead which is pretty much pointless however as the show router seems to have great range. It does lacks the 5ghz channel which is a downside.

Overall IMO you get much better channels for the money from Telus, You also get more reliable internet and upload speeds. The Shaw TV software system is considerably better as is the supplied hardware for TV and internet. If I remember correctly Shaw made me purchase the portals and it was rather expensive vs Telus renting them to me.

[CanmoreOrLess]

Originally posted by chibwack
I download a lot, pretty much all the time. In edmonton at my university house there was 8 of us all doing it and it was never an issue with Shaw.
I'll be living in an older 8-plex in beltline (14th ave sw), so I'm not convinced it'll be wired for optic.
So yeah, like Peter says, it really is going to come down to price I think. Unless it turns out I'm stuck with ADSL at this place (though maybe even then...)

You'll get letters from Telus, I've two now for downloading, South Park are real anal about those things. Was with Shaw for a couple of years, never a letter, only neg. was the internet would tits up a few times each week for an hour or so. Shaw could not find the cause, switched to Telus, never a hiccup in my case.

[toster]

I have had telus tv and shaw tv and I enjoy the telus tv more especially with the pvr but I hate the telus remote the shaw one was much better. As for Interent telus works alright don't really download much though

[CanmoreOrLess]

One thing to add, I record sports (watch later in the day). So for example if an NHL game goes to overtime, with Telus you may or may not get the entire game. I called Telus, was told to record the show following the game, to be certain to not have the OT cut off.

No idea if Shaw has a better formula or not. Just sucks to watch seventy minutes of hockey and hit a dead end.... happened in an NFL game as well last season. Had to look up the final score on the internet. I thought my RVR had issues....

Telus remote does suck, Shaw was not much better a year ago when I had a unit.

[Bladeh]

I'm on Telus Optik High Speed, not had any problems and love the TV apart from not being able to watch/rec more than 1 HD and 2 SD at a time. Actually having to move to Shaw here on the 18th because the place I'm moving to doesn't have Optik available, Shaw is $29 for 10MB for 2 years and TV I got for $29 with everything for 6 months then of course goes up quite a bit.

[Recca168]

It depends on the area you live in. Generally in the newer areas Telus will be pretty reliable. I myself am in somewhat inner city and on shaw broadband 50. Speedtests show ~45Mbs but torrents don't seem to pull that kind of speed anymore