Since we are the only "have not" region of Ottawa, is there any change of an upgrade to 860 Mhz?

I am getting really tried of waiting, and Bell is offering some really good deals, like "free" terminals for 2 years. (including HD and PVR, but not HD-PVR).

Maybe time to switch?

You scared me for a second. I am moving to Cumberland in 2 weeks, however Cumberland is showing 860Mhz right now

Hi:

I am talking about the old rural Cumberland, not Orleans. Pretty sure Rogers thinks Cumberland ends at Trim Road!

Please feel free to edit:

GRAND RIVER: Grand River (Rural).
LONDON: Belmont, Delaware.
MIDLAND/OWEN SOUND: Collingwood (Rural), Midland, Owen Sound, Penetanguishene, Wasaga Beach.
NEWMARKET: Holland Landing, Holt, Mount Albert, Sharon.
OTTAWA: Greely, Manotick, Metcalfe, Navan.
ST. THOMAS: Port Stanley, St. Thomas (Rural).
TILLSONBURG: Tillsonburg.
WOODSTOCK: Beachville, Woodstock (Rural).

600 Mhz :mad:
NEW 860 Mhz

Rural Grand River (Petersburg area) is actually loosing not gaining HDTV channels. We were previously receiving VERY reliable service from Detroit ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS stations plus a Sports channel (not into sports).

A few months ago Rogers decided in their or CRTC wisdom to change to the Buffalo networks however now NO PBS. Rogers CSR's kept telling me it muts be my terminal and to reset it etc etc. I tried to tell them diffferent to no avail.

Like so many others I have been waiting long enough for 850 build out so plan to drop my Rogers Cable and go back to Expressview.

For what it is worth, my PBS Channel(s) went back to HD once I got the 860mhz in my area (Mount Albert).

..Tom

Why does Rogers "shoot themselves in the foot" by not telling customers if and when they will be upgraded to 860Mhz? How long do they expect people to just sit quietly and wait and hope?

I just switched from ExpressVu back to Rogers because the sales clerk in the store sold me on all the new features like TMN on demand even though I told him I lived in Greely. Once it was installed, and these features were not there I got the run-around on the phone until finally someone says "Oh you're only 600Mhz, you can't have those features". When I asked when the area would be upgraded, I get the standard Roger's answer... "We have no definite plans to update your area at this time".

The Manotick-Greely area development is booming. With the looks of these new houses, I would say the owners have plenty of disposable income to spend on entertainment systems. One by one I see dishes sprouting on the roofs of these new homes. Rogers has the cable right to these homes, but by being non-commital, they are losing that business.

I'll give Roger's the 2 year comittment I signed up for. If we don't have full 860Mhz service by then in Greely, I'm going back to satellite. probably SC this time.

We just launched a complaint with the CRTC. We have been told several times that this is useless but we feel trapped. We have been promised for the last 2 years the 860MHZ will be in rural Waterloo by date 'x'. They actually gave us dates when we signed up, a year later and six months after that. Now they claim they have removed all plans to add 860 lines to our area but will continue to charge us the same amount without the extra HD channels the ROD or full digital channels. We assumed that the CRTC ok'ed rate hikes to support the new features. It can't possibly be legal to:

1) Lie about support for features to entice customers away from other providers.
2) Hike rates for features that are not available to a customer.

Anyone ever have any success in dealing with this?

Ryan

We assumed that the CRTC ok'ed rate hikes to support the new features.

The CRTC no longer regulates BDU's rates.

Well that makes the complaint that much more useless.

One error in my posting, I am in Grand River (Rural) in Rogers system. So all of you who are where I am (and it is geographically a big area), know that you are part of the 'we have no plans to upgrade to 860' group now.

Ryan

Well that makes the complaint that much more useless.

One error in my posting, I am in Grand River (Rural) in Rogers system. So all of you who are where I am (and it is geographically a big area), know that you are part of the 'we have no plans to upgrade to 860' group now.

Ryan

Sorry to hear, Ryan. I'm in big bad GTA -- downtown Toronto no less and the Rogers HQ isn't far away.

While Cable TV is a regulated business, it's not a subsidized government business. Within broad frames of reference, Rogers (or any cable company) can extend service at any levels it chooses, and determines to be economic. You and your neighbours can, and should, lobby Rogers for better service.

You do have alternatives: Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice. They may or may not meet your needs -- on price, on service, on channels. I happen to use Rogers for both TV and Internet and, in my area, it's way better than what I can get from anyone else.

Your mileage may vary. I would just suggest you weigh all the factors and let Rogers know where the wind is blowing. Presumably, if there is an economic case, they will upgrade your area. It seems to me that only a few years ago most of Ontario was all analog. So they have been investing big time.

Well I have to say "Congrats to ROGERS!"
After many telephone calls to the business office, my voice has been heard.
I requested CBCHD for the duration of the Olympics for us mortals in 600MHz land.
Well tonight, I see channel 515 (GlobalHD) for the first time, for the Super Bowl and the Olympics in HD. (Why they put the SB??? We already have ABCHD, argh CDN ads!). Maybe after the SB they will change the channel to 513 - CBCHD.

Kudos again

I have run into the same issue as VE3SY. Have had trouble tickets in for the last four months when HDPBS was removed from my channel lineup. I am in St. Marys and have Grand River Rural lineup.

The last tech that came out last week also didn't know why I could not receive PBS. He was on the phone for an hour. I showed him the channel line up guide on Rogers.com and showed him that I should be recieving 530. He agreed.

He called another fellow who is the "head end" tech and he stated that he had 600Mhz service at his residence (also Grand River Rural) in Tavistock and he had no problem receiving HDPBS. So, they are still looking into it. That was the thrid tech visit and the guy, a contractor, was really a decent guy.

There is some good news though. As homer_j mentioned I am now seeing 515 with a banner stating that the Superbowl and Olympics will be available! Ah the joys of rural living.......

Paul

You will get the PBS west feed if you subscribe to the second tier of HD channels(the east and west feeds are Identical as all PBS HD programing comes from a single feed) I think they feel a little silly that they did not catch it in the first place. I have been told that they will switch to the Buffalo feed in the near future and then everyone will be covered.

St.Thomas city proper is all 860 MHz as far as I know, and has been for some time. :p

However, 5 minutes outside of town in "rural" St. Thomas we are still stuck with 600 MHz which means less HD content, no HD CBC or CTV, no HD Movie Network , no Rogers on Demand nor Movies on Demand -- however, we do still pay the same as those who receive full service hence the postings here from those still not getting full service who do feel disadvantaged.
Worse is that Rogers has no apparent timetable for upgrades even after frequent tech visits to document borderline service (run HD and high speed internet on 600 MHz and your service gets very iffy through summer heat spells)

I wouldn't be to happy about that myself. I think that the only reason that we have it here, is because we're "married" to London. In fact, they don't seem to make any distinction between St.Thomas and London.

Are we getting CBCHD for the duration of the playoffs?

Please make your voices heard and contact Rogers.

Anyone have any news yet on whether Ottawa regions will be upgraded by Rogers to 860MHz from 600MHz? I've inquired/complained to about every single Rogers email address there is. Is there any corporate email addresses that goes up the command chain?

Just wondering how many of you Rogers cable users have been waiting for the 600MHz to 860MHz to happen in Ottawa: Navan, Cumberland, Manotick, Greely? And did you eventually pull the trigger to move to Bell Expressvue? If not, why not?

Just curious as to the numbers. Might help me decide to move to Bell Expressvue if I don't feel like waiting for an answer that is not forthcoming.

Thanks.

The Company's dominant technology architecture is based on a three-tiered structure of primary hubs, optical nodes and co-axial
distribution. The primary hubs, located in each community that the Company serves, are connected together by inter-city fibre-optic systems carrying television, Internet, network control and monitoring, and administrative traffic. The fibre-optic systems are constructed as rings that allow signals to flow in and out of each primary hub through two paths, providing protection from a fibre cut. The high-capacity optical fibre networks deliver high performance and reliability, and have substantial reserves for future growth in the form of dark fibre and unused optical wavelengths. Each primary hub serves on average approximately 100,000 subscribers.

Optical fibre joins the primary hub to the optical nodes in the cable distribution plant. Final distribution to subscriber homes from optical
nodes uses co-axial cable with two-way amplifiers to support interactive television and Internet service. Co-axial cable capacity has been increased repeatedly by introducing more advanced amplifier technologies. Co-axial cable remains the most cost-effective and widely deployed means of carrying two-way television and Internet services to residential subscribers.

Groups of approximately 600 or less cable customer homes are served from each optical node in a cable architecture commonly referred to as fibre to the feeder ("FTTF"). The FTTF plant provides bandwidth up to 750 Megahertz ("MHz") or 860 MHz, which includes 37 MHz of bandwidth used for "upstream" transmission from the subscribers' premises to the primary hub. The upstream bandwidth is projected to be sufficient to support multiple cable modem systems and data traffic from interactive digital set-top terminals for at least the next five years. When necessary, additional upstream capacity can be provided by reducing the number of homes served by each optical node. Fibre cable has been placed to permit a reduction of the node size from 600 to 300 homes by installing additional optical transceiver modules.

Approximately 75% of the Company's cable plant has been upgraded to 750/860 MHz FTTF architecture. Through the Company's scheduled network upgrade program, most of the balance will be rebuilt to FTTF by the end of 2003. Some smaller communities and rural areas continue to use more traditional two-way cable architectures with 2,000 subscribers per node and 600 MHz bandwidth. Overall, 94% of Cable's total cable plant was two-way addressable at December 31, 2002, with approximately 95% of its plant capable of transmitting 550 MHz of bandwidth or greater.

The Company believes that the 750/860 MHz FTTF architecture provides it with significant advantages including more bandwidth for television and data services, improved picture quality, enhanced two-way capability, increased reliability and reduced maintenance. In addition, the Company's clustered network of cable systems served by regional head-ends facilitates more rapid introduction of new services to subscribers with a lower capital cost.

The last post appears to be several years out of date, and is therefore not very helpful.

I switched to Bell last year to get HD programming, and a dual HD PVR. Got tried of the wait for the promised upgrade to Cumberland. At first, the upgrade was planned for Spring, 2005, then Spring, 2006. Now, who knows, Spring, 2007?

I am happy with Bell, but would switch back to Rogers if they upgrade my area.