50mbps Internet with Telus in Kelowna

[Scadam]

Shaw has a horrible habit of slowing down, especially for those living in area's where the feed is being shared with many people...like apartment buildings etc.

This is the same sales pitch Telus marketing tried on me last time they called. If it was more true in the past I don't know (I didn't experience it then either), but since Shaw went all digital my speed has been consistently at or slightly above what I'm paying for, with super low latency. I've done multiple speed tests at peak times like a Friday or Sunday evening, getting the exact same results as any other time. And not with Shaw's homemade speed test, third party tests and when possible selecting servers far from BC to avoid any caching/cheating. Some of them display comparisons of your test results with others coming from your same ISP, and my results were not abnormal.

[TheDudeAbides]

This is the same sales pitch Telus marketing tried on me last time they called. If it was more true in the past I don't know (I didn't experience it then either), but since Shaw went all digital my speed has been consistently at or slightly above what I'm paying for, with super low latency. I've done multiple speed tests at peak times like a Friday or Sunday evening, getting the exact same results as any other time. And not with Shaw's homemade speed test, third party tests and when possible selecting servers far from BC to avoid any caching/cheating. Some of them display comparisons of your test results with others coming from your same ISP, and my results were not abnormal.

Yea, that hasn't really been a factor since Docis modems. Telus on the other hand still can be slower if you are a ways away from the Node.

[Omnitheo]

had a look at the forums on Telus website, and found many people complaining about speeds on bb50, along with reps basically admitting that certain areas were "saturated" or that they may notice speed issues during "peak times"

Whoah Whoah Whoah Telus...what about all that your salesman said to me about direct fiber line to my house and not sharing connections with the neighbourhood?

[StraitTalk]

Nobody is immune to bandwidth limitation unless widespread fibre networks have been rolled out. Not sure where this general belief that this doesn't happen with DSL providers comes from. Living in Kelowna, I'm used to having almost full speeds with Shaw. I'm lucky that I don't fall into an area of saturation, but that has nothing to do with being with Shaw or Telus and I'd wager that they have a similar amount of customers by ratio on a 50mbps service experiencing saturation. What I'd like to see is widespread over-usage from customers to the point that the CRTC rules that providers cannot limit bandwidth. Internet needs to be a commodity as respected as power or water as without it life is becoming increasingly difficult to go about, and in fact, I would like to see more public investment into this area as it can be profitable for municipalities with far greater responsibility for prices.

I know we all love to gripe about insurance prices, for instance, but a very good friend with an identical clean driving record but living in Calgary vs. me in Kelowna, is paying far more than I am for a less expensive car in the same risk category.

There is an incredible change happening in tech industries where employees are increasingly able to work from home and require strong, stable connections, as well.

Cable companies are bleeding cable subscribers because it's a service that suddenly doesn't shape up to alternatives, primary one being Internet. Start focusing on the medium that matters and perhaps we can return to a place where we feel what we pay is fair. We are way behind the world on this one, and it's time for that to change.

[Partmanpartfish]

had a look at the forums on Telus website, and found many people complaining about speeds on bb50, along with reps basically admitting that certain areas were "saturated" or that they may notice speed issues during "peak times"

Whoah Whoah Whoah Telus...what about all that your salesman said to me about direct fiber line to my house and not sharing connections with the neighbourhood?

Um, see, the problem with forums is you don't hear from the 99.9% of customers who don't have any problems with their service.

Shaw has lots and lots of customers with problems also. That's one reason they're losing so many subscribers to Telus.

My advice to the OP is to try it without a contract.

[Omnitheo]

Comparing pricing, and level of service, and rankings from third party companies, Shaw seems to come out in front of Telus across the board. If shaw is losing any subscribers to Telus it's because of false promises and misinformation in their sales pitches such as "direct fiber to your house"

[Scadam]

I know two people who went for the "free" laptop deal from Telus a while back, and are still locked in to their multi-year contracts. Not sure if they're satisfied with that decision or not, but I know I had zero interest in essentially paying monthly for three years for a low-end laptop - I don't use my current low-end laptop and don't need any rent-to-own type of help getting another one.

I've never heard of anyone else leaving Shaw, but I do remember a friend leaving Telus after he got a $1000+ bill for internet usage/overage. By contrast, Shaw phoned me once about my high usage, and asked if I might have left a P2P program running...

I once called Shaw to adjust my services and they threw free long distance North America at me, and an extra tier of channels. Another time when Telus called me with real aggressive pricing I called Shaw and got a free PVR (expensive back then) and a super-low priced bundle for a year. Then a few months back I wanted to drop cable and they talked me into keeping it for free, 6 months of lower bill and we keep the cable and pvr. They're sneaky but you can't complain about the service lol. I haven't watched cable anyway since then so their scheme probably won't work but whatever, they appealed to my laziness; a few more months before I need to unplug, rewire A/V, and haul the PVR back to Shaw. I find that a lot more refreshing than contracts.

[Bsuds]

I've never heard of anyone else leaving Shaw.

We left them because of billing problems and will never go back.

[HP]

Omnitheo, I'm interested why you're so concerned about the statement "direct fiber to your house"... how is it misinformation when you get fibre brought into your home?

[netfreak]

Omnitheo, I'm interested why you're so concerned about the statement "direct fiber to your house"... how is it misinformation when you get fibre brought into your home?

You're joking, right? Telus will bring fiber into the node servicing your area, but you still end up with copper from there to your house. They don't actually run fiber to each person with DSL.... Anyone already on DSL (myself included) can easily see it plugs into a phone jack.

[HP]

You're joking, right? Telus will bring fiber into the node servicing your area, but you still end up with copper from there to your house. They don't actually run fiber to each person with DSL.... Anyone already on DSL (myself included) can easily see it plugs into a phone jack.

Nope. Not joking at all. I happen to know with 100% certainty that if you're sold fibre to the home, you get fibre to the home. That's why I'm curious. I also happen to know that FTTH isn't available in all parts of Kelowna but it is the designated replacement technology for copper to the home with DSLAMS get full.

But you're not Omnitheo...

[TheDudeAbides]

Noticed some Telus trucks around town with big rolls of something. I'm guessing it's fibre. Maybe part of that 30mil (?)infrastructure expansion they announced for Kelowna?

Saw them on Diehart and somewhere else can't remember. Maybe around Capri Centre??. That would probably be expanding/adding nodes. As far as I know Telus does not do fibre to the home. There may be exceptions if you are right beside a node or in a brand new condo downtown or something. They probably have a few showcase neighbourhoods just so they can say they do but really they don't for the vast majority of people.

[HP]

As far as I know Telus does not do fibre to the home

Incorrect. I know that with certainty.

There may be exceptions if you are right beside a node or in a brand new condo downtown or something

Partly true. New developments in Kelowna are all getting FTTH unless there is an exceptional reason not to. The decision to use FTTH to deliver service has nothing to do with relative position to a "node" as it has been called. In fact, if you are within about 200 cable-meters of a "node" you will probably get DSL because the service caps out at 50 mbps today and 50 mbps is pretty viable over regular old phone cable up to about 200 meters (depending on gauge and condition)

I refer you to my previous post. It's more than showcase neighbourhoods but you are right that it isn't blanket coverage. That takes time and serious money. I have written extensively on the topic of GPON/FTTH in Kelowna in other threads.

The essence of my point in that thread was that the SERVICE is 50mbps Internet. Do you really care if your 50mbps is on fibre, copper, string, or carrier pigeon? FTTH is not a service - it's a delivery medium. Shaw could just as easily decide they want to do FTTH - would one ditch them because they got rid of coax?

I could dive right into the technicalities of everything, but since the original thread (almost a year ago) was a question about 50mbps Internet, I'm purely involving myself to try to correct misinformation.

[Partmanpartfish]

I've never heard of anyone else leaving Shaw...

Try googling 'shaw losing customers.'

[TheDudeAbides]

Try googling 'shaw losing customers.'

There is some telco propaganda in some of the traditional media about Shaw losing customers to Telus because of TV. Same thing is happening to Telus for wired phone. I don't trust anything I read anymore because a lot of these companies are owned by the same corporations or they have very cozy relationships.

Case in point, just look at all the anti-competition "news stories" that suddenly showed up in a lot of the traditional media when there were rumors Verizon was thinking of entering Canada as a 4th wireless phone provider.

The 3 amigos were panicking so the propaganda became rather obvious rather quickly.