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Internet options in Cambridge/Puslinch area

10K views 24 replies 12 participants last post by  bgarner 
#1 ·
Good day,

I wanted to find out if anyone knows of any other options that may be available in regards to getting internet other than the options I have below:

1. Bell can bring business Fiber to my house, but the cost is $595/month for 20mbps.

2. Xplorenet can bring their new LTE to my house, but I need a 68 foot tower to be installed at a cost of $6,200 not including permits and other stuff

3. Bell/Rogers/TELUS LTE hub but that gets only 20gigs max with bell a month for just over $100

4. Rogers can run their service to my house from the nearest junction (approx. 800 metres away) for $60,000. Yup that was the amount quoted

Anyone else have any other options I could consider? I would love Fiber from a 3rd party if it was half the costs of Bell.

Please let me know any ideas you have. Willing to listen to anything at this point.

Brian
 
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#2 ·
Dude, that sucks.

Years ago (early 90s) I ran a multi-line BBS in Calgary, and we moved to a house in University Heights. We wanted to run additional phone lines, but that neighbourhood had buried lines, unlike the previous house, so we asked AGT (now Telus) how much it would cost to run an additional 24 phone lines to the house - underground. I can't remember the cost quoted, but it was very high.

So I ended up digging a trench in the backyard myself to specifications. I don't remember what most of the costs were, but I do remember one: the cost for AGT to punch-down each phone line (each twisted pair) was $157/line, so just the punch down was $3768 in 1992 dollars. That's just using the punch-down tool on the phone RJ11 equivalent of a ethernet patch panel. Two wires. Punching down each wire would take 30 seconds if you're really bad at it. And that was only part of the total costs. Anyway, my dad got a friend of his who worked for AGT to do all the work for next to nothing in his off-hours (you know, at normal labour rates). And then the cost was very little.

I can only imagine how terrible phone companies would be to deal with if you're not in the middle of a major city.
 
#3 ·
60,000 doesn't sound that off, if its underground.

At my current work, we had to pay for them to go about 300m (under a street and a driveway) to run fiber direct to our building.
It was just under 30,000

For 'business' grade fiber, that's about the right price though.. we are paying a little more, but ours is BURSTABLE to higher.
If its business grade, part of that cost likely is the monthly service contract.. likely has an SLA for a specific turn around time, etc for outages, etc. (vs a home based internet which has next to nothing)

Do you have a regular phone connection there? (bell POTS, etc).
Only thing I could see then would be DSL.. would be slower than many of the other options.. but cheaper per GB.
 
#4 ·
If you have clear line-of-site to a friend or acquaintances location, who has access to decent internet connectivity, you might be able to make an arrangement with them to host an account in your name and extend it wirelessly.

Ubiquiti networks, for one, makes several devices that could be helpful, in particular their 'powerbeam' product. Check out amazon.com and search for 'PBE-5AC-500'.

I have used some of their equipment in the past and it seems pretty decent and not very expensive. Certainly less than the outrageous amounts you mention.
 
#5 ·
Unfortunately I am too far from the neighbourhood to get them to extend their wifi. I own a number of ubiquiti wifi devices so will look a bit more into some other solutions they may have.

Thanks and keep the suggestions coming.

Regards,

Brian
 
#8 ·
Is ADSL an option? Even if you're able to 1-2mbps, you could bond multiple lines with MLPP to increase your speed. Teksavvy offers this option as long as you have access to DSL services and have multiple pairs in your home to sign up for multiple lines.

Unfortunately, that is the trade-off for living in a rural area. Internet connectivity just isn't readily available. If internet is that important to you, that $60,000 that Rogers is charging is nothing when you look at it long term. Also the $595 per month from Bell is considered dirt cheap for a business fibre connection. You may be able to get it for cheaper if you're willing to pay more of the constructions costs up front.
 
#9 ·
Has anyone heard of silowireless? Seems they might be able to provide an affordable solution for my area.

I was thinking about bonding multiple lines. I can get multiple lines to my house, however, would that essentially double my stream? How reliable is bonding?
 
#10 ·
DSL bonding is reliable. I actually know of a communications company in rural/industrial Cambridge (near Toyota) that uses bonding as an affordable and reliable option for their business (compared to fibre, which is available to them but cost prohibitive). They run enterprise VOIP for the business over the bonded connections.

I did a quick Google search and saw Silo as well. I've never heard of them nor know anyone subscribing to them. It probably wouldn't hurt to give them a call and see what they could offer you...
 
#12 ·
Bonding is as reliable as your DSL connection. I would order a DSL connection and test it for reliability. If it works out then you can move on to a bonding solution. If you're able to do bonded DSL, it will most certainly be better value for your money and faster than any wireless solution. And yes, you're basically combining the speed from both lines. So if you're able to get 5mbps DSL, and you bond two lines together you'd get 10mbps.
 
#14 ·
Well, I just replaced Bell DSL with TekSavvy and what a difference. While the speed is still around 2 Mbps, Bell was just too unreliable.

I think I will try the bonding route to see how that works.

My only concern is that it still won't solve the problem of streaming shows on things like Apple TV or Netflix as per my understanding?

Am I wrong here?
 
#15 ·
If you can get 2mbps on both lines, then you would be getting 4mbps in total. That should be adequate for Netflix, although not at the highest quality setting though. If you have three pairs, you can even bond three lines for 6mbps. Also is your Teksavvy connection stable? Or do you find that your modem drops the sync frequently and does the speed fluctuate wildly? If you are having those issues then yes you are correct that bonding won't do much to help.
 
#16 ·
How does your dsl perform in wet weather? You may notice a decrease in throughput in such conditions.

2MB/s is definitely borderline if not poor for streaming. As mentioned, even 4MB/s is still not the best for Netflix if you intend to share your connection throughout the home.
 
#17 ·
Well, I got the MLPPP with TekSavvy today and doubled my speed to just over 4Mbps.

I think I am going to bite the bullet and start some discussions with Rogers. If they can lower the 60K costs, then I would be interested.

Since the lady I was speaking too went on maternity leave, and her backups don't seem to be all that smart, anyone know someone at Rogers I can speak to regarding getting services to my location?

Thanks,

Brian
 
#21 ·
I would complain to the government. In this day and age it's incomprehensible to me why semi-rural areas in southern Ontario would be without reliable and affordable broadband options.

Bell and Rogers shut down Inukshuk (except in areas where they're contractually obligated to continue providing it) and didn't replace it with an affordable option. Further, the big players have been hoarding spectrum which has squeezed out potential WISPs.

LTE or HSPA (with the big players) is not an affordable substitute. Nor does it provide consistent throughput.

One affordable HSPA option that exists is Wind Mobile. I see they do have native coverage in most of the Puslinch area. However, their "fair data usage" policy on their unlimited plan indicates that your internet speeds may be slowed after you've consumed 10GB. The "unlimited" data plan is $35. Though again, I don't believe cellular is a good broadband option. They appear to offer at least two data devices that offer WiFi. Not sure if you can bring your own HSPA device or not.

Has anyone tried Silo, mentioned earlier in this thread?
 
#22 ·
I am in Guelph and have cable but I sympathize and think this whole semi rural thing needs some serious government intervention. Puslinch is not even rural by Canadian standards...just a bit outside a city.

I believe the answer is for the government to force Bell to replace ALL the old copper used for voice lines in rural areas with fibre optics and replace analog telephony with VOIP thereby also providing an IP address to every house. At their cost as part of the regulated regime. Probably have to be IPV6 but some enterprising companies would soon arrange 4 over 6 service.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
#23 ·
There is supposed to be something going through the CRTC.. to ensure ALL areas have access to high speed.
(assuming within reason.. still might have to meet a certain population minimums... 2 houses every 30 km sort of thing may be TOO sparse)

How/what exactly happens... is another story.

Many of places have NOTHING right now.
So, them getting even 6mbps DSL will be an upgrade.
But in this day and age.. is that borderline NOT high speed anymore? (the US is going through to change their term for highs speed to a specific min.. something like 20+mbps?)

So much of this comes down to COST to get it out there. The infrastructure.
timlocke mentioned getting Fiber to everyone.
Maybe 100 years from now. I would say only 10% of the most populated areas even have this right now.
The cost for it, is INSANE to do, for a setup standpoint... especially in rural areas where there is not aboveground lines.
(we paid at work, almost $25k to just get a run 500m under a road and two driveways)
As well the setup is much more insane. Any joe can punch down a telephone line... doing fiber cable joins, etc.. is a whole other deal.
 
#25 ·
Well back in the house after renovations and still looking for a good option for Internet.

I have tried calling Rogers again but it has been difficult trying to find someone that could help.

Anyone have any contacts at Rogers that I could speak to that could actual provide me with a valid quote to get Internet to my house?

Regards,

Brian
 
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