which provider gives 'Constant Bandwidth', Bell Aliant or Rogers

[zubayer077]

Hi,
I am from St. john's, NL. I am wondering which one will give a constant bandwidth throughout the whole day, Bell Aliant or Rogers. Download limit is not my issue......and both of them cost the same for me. But for internet, I use it as a reference. So I am wondering if anyone can tell me which provider will be best for me???

I used Aliant in one of my friends' house......the bandwidth was below par on that day. I was getting 640 Kbps whereas it should have been 1.8 Mbps. How about Rogers??

[Wharfe]

Aliant all the way! No throttling, no bandwidth caps.. fantastic. Don't go with Rogers when you can get REAL internet from Aliant.

Were you getting 640kbps upload or download? It's only supposed to be 640 up, but why 1.8?

They offer up to 1.5, 5, and 10 in some areas. I am not sure in what situation it should have been 1.8 mbps.

But in any case, do NOT go with Rogers. Aliant speeds stay pretty much the same (for me anyway) but I know Rogers gets slower with more people online.

I have High Speed Ultra and it's always fast. It's rated up to 5mbps. Right now I am getting 6. During the late nights I have seen it around 7 - 8 sometimes.

[Korak]

I agree with Wharfe.......Bell Aliant is the way to go.
Get high-speed-ultra...I consistantly get 5.5 mbps down and 1.7 mbps up.

[zubayer077]

Sorry it should have been 1.5Mbps. I am thinking about Hi-speed Max, but they will bump it upto 60/month at the year end.....what we can get at $50 at the end of first year with Rogers.

The honeymoon period is good from both of them, after that comes the real story.

[57]

You may wish to check out the following thread. Many times when connecting to Bell lines, Bell limits customers to 3 mbps download, even though they pay for more. The only way to get more than this limit (if this happens to you) is to test your line and complain like crazy. This has been discussed quite a bit in this forum - here's one sample thread. This can apply not only to Bell, but also Service Providers using Bell lines.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=108380

The thread also discusses the fact that you usually get what you pay for with Rogers (in Ontario). Don't know how this translates to NL since the infrastructure is different.

[emichon]

There's no throttling at all with Bell Aliant in the maritimes. If you don't get the advertised speeds there would be a problem with the lines, or even the modem, which would just need an upgrade.

Bell might be in the name, but we're lucky that they don't follow the other ISP's Yet anyways

[Stefer]

Originally Posted by Wharfe

Aliant all the way! No throttling, no bandwidth caps.. fantastic. Don't go with Rogers when you can get REAL internet from Aliant....

I'm sorry but i've been with both and Aliant had greatly varying speeds for me. After 5 PM, sometimes it was unbearable, i would get time-outs just trying to load pages like google, yahoo, etc.
Made complaints, nothing got fixed.

I switched to Rogers, got less problems... yes the speed will also vary, but i barely notice it compared to what i had with Aliant.

EDIT : i guess it might vary from region to region... i know i've had so many service interruptions in my area it wasn't funny.

[Wharfe]

Yes it must be a difference between regions.. at least from my experience it seems that way.

The service has always been great here in NL, I've seen it go down maybe 2-3 times tops and I've been with them for a good 4+ years. Those times were also usually late night maintenance, and one maintenance during the day.

[jfoley85]

There is a BIG difference between Bell Internet and Bell Aliant internet from what others have told me. Some people might like Rogers more in places like Ontario, but here in Newfoundland I know for sure Bell Aliant is the way to go. They have no caps on their internet as opposed to Bell internet and Rogers. My mom had Rogers internet and she was constantly using more megabites and the Bell Aliant service here is awesome. Theres no worries about using too much megabites, and I never regretted signing up to them. With Rogers she would always have to up her plan to cover the usage. Im on just one simple plan with Bell Aliant. Far less hassle.

I do LOVE the Rogers VIP services for television I have, however. The On Demand option is awesome. But TV and Internet should definitely be seperated. Dont get a cell phone with them if you live in NL. The service stinks!

[nic78]

Bell Aliant FibreOp has a bandwith cap of 250GB a month, and BellAliant may at their own discretion charge fee's for excessive bandwith usage.

EXCESSIVE USE OF BANDWIDTH
Bell Aliant will take measures to address any customer's excessive use of bandwidth, which can negatively impact Bell Aliant's Internet or its users. Bandwidth usage is the amount of data sent and received through your Internet connection.

Bandwidth use is considered to be excessive when it significantly exceeds the usage characteristic of a typical residential user of the Service. This will be determined by Bell Aliant in its sole discretion.

Where a bandwidth cap is determined for a particular service, usage in excess of that cap will be deemed excessive, and Bell Aliant may charge its customers for bandwidth use above the cap at a rate determined by Bell Aliant or restrict usage.

If a customer's use is deemed to be excessive, Bell Aliant will make every effort to contact the customer and review the matter. However, where Bell Aliant, in its sole discretion, determines that the usage potentially impacts Bell Aliant's ability to provide its Internet Services or that its network resources need to be protected, it reserves the right to suspend or terminate service in response to a customer's excessive bandwidth use, without notice to the customer.

If the customer anticipates usage in excess of the typical residential user, the customer should inquire about the availability of dedicated service or other service options.

As a guideline, in our experience typical residential bandwidth usage tends to be well within the range of 250GB per month. This guideline includes a combination of downloaded and uploaded content. Examples of Internet activities that can contribute to heavy bandwidth usage include downloading and uploading movies and streaming videos. For example, 250GB would be equivalent to approximately downloading or uploading 50,000 songs, or 570 1 hour TV shows, or 285 standard definition movies or 25 high definition movies.

http://productsandservice.bellaliant...ns_fibreop.jsp

[doscott]

It's more of a suggested cap. There is no billing for exceeding it, just the ability to drop you if you abuse things.

[file]

People seem to latch on to the 250GB present in the acceptable use policy and call it an absolute cap. It's not. It's a guideline they give for what they expect the average user to use. As we all use more and more data this guideline will probably increase. Does it really matter though? No. Why? Bell Aliant is doing things differently when it comes to bandwidth management.

I'll explain...

Traditionally companies institute an absolute cap and enforce it. This has the effect of limiting (be it conscious or subconscious) your use of your internet service and can reduce congestion. Depending on the network in question this could certainly be needed (if you have cable internet they may oversubscribe your cable node A LOT). It's also sometimes just a pure money grab.

Bell Aliant, due to the fiber and their great backbone, has a lot more bandwidth to play around with. Instead of instituting an absolute cap to ease non-existent congestion or collect additional money they have taken a policy of letting you use as much as you want with the ability for them to step in if you somehow cause problems so others are not impacted. Is it likely that will ever happen? No.

Really... bandwidth caps are bogus and mind play.

[jfoley85]

Yes, thats what I was thinking. 250 GB is the highest package Rogers offers for internet. Im sure most people can stay within that amount on FibreOp. And is definitely more of a suggested cap.

[Testo]

Hey Nic78,

No caps on any Bell Aliant bundle! I'm sure that fine print is there so they can shut you down if you abuse their system. Eastlink and Rogers both cap @ 250 and apparently will charge you for over use.

[jfoley85]

Well depending on your internet package you have with Rogers. They cap on all their plans, its an enforced cap, and they will charge you for going over. Thats why Im loving Bell Aliant, No worries! And you would have to do an aweful lot to abuse their system.