Telus Optik TV/Internet questions

[Hero_X]

Hey guys,

do any of you have Telus Optik TV + Internet?

I'm reading up on it and I've read that there are limitations on how many boxes in the house can get a HD feed, and that if you're watching TV it slows down your internet.

Is this true? Have you experienced this?

I'm interested in switching from Shaw, but if there's limits like these, not sure it would be worthwhile.

Thanks for your input

[danno]

4 hd channels at once right now switching to 5 shortly is what I was told. I don't really notice a speed difference, but I wouldn't brag about how fast it is. Telus just hooked up fibre optic and I didn't notice a change with that either.

[jdmakkord]

I had to cancel my Optik/dsl50 package this week. Our area is not set up to support the bandwidth requirements according to their tech support guys. Had it for a month and we were forced to reset/ reboot both the receiver and modem no less than 30 times. It's unfortunate but their call centre is based in the Philippines, they don't know what areas shouldn't be sold Optik, and Telus doesn't give them this information either. Going back to shaw now I guess.

[16hypen3sp]

I have no complaints. We are using the PVR and 2 wireless set top boxes. I notice no decrease in internet speed when using both internet and TV services at the same time.

I did the speed test with the Telus tech right when he installed it. Upload speed was over 25 and down was 80 IIRC. He was pretty surprised at the upload speed... thought I was paying extra for it.

Anyways... my previous Shaw service was horrific for internet speeds compared to the above numbers. Super glad I made the switch.

I also think danno is correct. I remember the tech saying something about this and what danno says sounds familiar.

[rx7_turbo2]

I've had it for awhile. Been extremely happy. I don't have any crazy requirements though, I only have two boxes. I'll surf, download or game, often when we have both tv's going and recording shows and I haven't noticed any slow down on the Internet side.

[spikerS]

well, I don't know much about the speeds part, if you want to make the switch, let me know, and I can at least save you $50 off your first bill.

[A2VR6]

It's dependent on the areas of the city you live in from what i've found. Areas with fibre availability tend to be much better for Telus. I made the switch from Shaw to Telus and it was a world of difference speed wise (I was paying for Broadband 50 on Shaw and I was getting something like 11 mbps d/l and 1 mbps u/l, now with Telus im right around 50 MBPS D/L and 10 MBPS U/L) but I really believe thats because we recently got Fibre in our area.

[eblend]

Been with Telus for 4 years now, and not a single regret. I don't remember last time I had stable internet for this long. I had some initial issues when it was setup on DSL as my phone line pair was bad, but after they fixed it and swapped to a different pair, it was solid for a good 2.5 years on DSL 25. I have since switched to fiber and have it at my home on 50mbps connection and at my parents on 25mbps connection, no issues at all, in the last 4 years I seriously don't recall a single outage for me, which is much better then my previous 7 years with Shaw.

They do have a limitation like others said, can't watch more then 4 HD shows at the same time, so if you have lots of people watching TV all at the same time in the house, you may hit that limit, or if you record a bunch of crap at the same time. Telus overprovisions their service, so if you are on a 25mbps connection, you are actually on 29mbps speed, which allows for about 2 HD streams of tv before you notice any slowdown below advertised speed, and even then, you would probably never notice the difference unless you are pegging your connection with usenet or something, in which case it won't go at max speed.

I watch TV like 8 hours a day (on in the background while doing anything) and can max out my connection at 6.2MB/s on usenet.

Here is a speed test I did just now with TV on, this is 50mbps service on fiber. I did 25mbps service on DSL and Fiber for a short period and there wasn't much difference between the two, but upload got much faster on fiber.

[danno]

Also I find it way cheaper then shaw. I just resigned for 3 years and my bill is half price for a year. Shaw wouldn't even give me a free box back 4 years ago. Telus gives free boxes and a gift for signing up.

[eblend]

Originally posted by danno
Also I find it way cheaper then shaw. I just resigned for 3 years and my bill is half price for a year. Shaw wouldn't even give me a free box back 4 years ago. Telus gives free boxes and a gift for signing up.

Just to clarify though, if you don't want a contract, you can easily go month to month, contract is not mandatory. I did the contract because I liked the service, but am on month to month since it expired.

[schocker]

Originally posted by danno
Also I find it way cheaper then shaw. I just resigned for 3 years and my bill is half price for a year. Shaw wouldn't even give me a free box back 4 years ago. Telus gives free boxes and a gift for signing up.

Taking out discounts though, since telus gives you no channels with the base plan, it is way more expensive for me compared to shaw. I was looking to maybe switch but I will stick wtih shaw for now. No way I would consider a contract with them either.

[msommers]

I've been with Telus for a couple years and I like but my requirements are pretty low relative to people here.

I've thought about signing a contact but if I'm already month to month, what's the point?

[eblend]

Originally posted by schocker

Taking out discounts though, since telus gives you no channels with the base plan, it is way more expensive for me compared to shaw. I was looking to maybe switch but I will stick wtih shaw for now. No way I would consider a contract with them either.

Not sure what you mean that telus gives you no channels in the base plan? Essentials is what all Optik TV users get regardless of what combo they like to add.

http://www.telus.com/en/ab/tv/channels.jsp

[schocker]

No sports for example. If you compare the base shaw and telus channel selections.

[eblend]

Originally posted by msommers
I've been with Telus for a couple years and I like but my requirements are pretty low relative to people here.

I've thought about signing a contact but if I'm already month to month, what's the point?

Don't think you can once you are already a customer regardless. There are perks like free TV or whatever else they are giving away. I signed up when Optik first became a thing and got a free HD pvr, worked out well for me since I am still with them 4 years later, so I got something out of it, besides the first year discounts. If you are unsure and you sign up, then yah, it's probably a bad idea. They should really allow you to cancel within the first month if you are not happy...I bet more people would sign up for their 3 year contracts if that was an option.

The fact is, the service works well, I love their central PVR and the modern interface, and if they set it up for you and it doesn't work as advertised, I am pretty sure you can cancel regardless as they are not able to deliver a reliable service and meet their part of the contract.

[jdmakkord]

Yeah I've heard good things from people living in newer areas, unfortunately we have old older wiring and no fibre.

[eblend]

Originally posted by jdmakkord
Yeah I've heard good things from people living in newer areas, unfortunately we have old older wiring and no fibre.

Yah, with DSL on copper the distance from the DSALM can determine your eligibility. Before my parents moved to Silverado on Fiber, they lived in Braeside in a 40 year old house, and they had no issues with their cables, but they were close to DSLAM. Really the luck of the draw when it comes to older places. One of the reasons I bought my current house is that I saw that it was fiber ready when doing the walkthrough in the basement haha The fiber was in place, but no infrastructure in the street until about 1.5 years ago, at that point was able to get fiber. My parents only had a fiber drop, no more copper at all, whereas I had a combo cable that had copper and fiber.

[speedog]

Originally posted by schocker
No sports for example. If you compare the base shaw and telus channel selections.

But...

The basic TELUS Essentials TV package with 25Mbps internet is regularly priced at $92 per month per TELUS' web site and that get's you the PVR and two additional tV boxes for free if you sign a three year contract (125 base channels).

Now as best as I can figure using Shaw's web site is that the same equivalent would cost $121.90 at Shaw although you would get TSN TVA5 sports channels (64 base channels).

Now please note that I am factoring our any 6 month or boxing week specials, the pricing above appears to be the discounted bundle packages that each offers and to add a sports theme pack on TELUS would cost one an additional $9 a month (now up to $101 per month).

So on the surface it appears that TELUS even with an additional theme pack would still be cheaper on a monthly basis ($101 vs $121.90) and you'd get almost twice as many channels. Now that said, there must be some sort of free equipment rental deal at Shaw if you sign a 3 year contract although I couldn't figure that out on their web site.

[blitz]

Originally posted by msommers
I've been with Telus for a couple years and I like but my requirements are pretty low relative to people here.

I've thought about signing a contact but if I'm already month to month, what's the point?

I signed a 3 year contract, it'll save be about $750 in the first year, and after that it's $10/month contract remaining to cancel, so I break even after 5 months and after the promo year is over I'm $500 ahead.

Been great so far, Shaw is overloaded as fuck in my neighbourhood.

[speedog]

Originally posted by jdmakkord
Yeah I've heard good things from people living in newer areas, unfortunately we have old older wiring and no fibre.

Depends on the older area you're living in - if you're north of the Bow River then chances are pretty good that you either have or soon will have FTTH. Our 60 year old community will have FTTH this month (January 2015) as all the infrastructure was put into place this past fall.

Currently we've got 25 Mbps internet from TELUS but will be upgrading to 50. Might even consider 100 but there just seem like enough of an incentive to move to 100 right now.

As far as slow downs on our internet when the HD is in use, yeah I can measure that but even with 3 HD channels in use/being recording, no one seems to complain in the house about slower internet - a bump to 50 or 100 would certainly address any gripes that might be.