Access not competing - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

dogger · 2012-02-04, 11:23 AM

Has anyone noticed that over the last few years Access is not even trying to compete?

They used to be one of the first cable co's to provide the latest and greatest and now they are one of the last, constantly playing catch up.

They used to have faster internet than slack tel but they have not updated their speeds in a long time. Right now their fastest speed is slower.

Slack Tel had multi room dvr first and currently offers remote dvr.

Other cable co's currently offer internet speeds of 100 mb/s (Shaw in Saskatoon) and remote dvr (Rogers in Ontario).

Not to mention that they still dont have local stations in HD and there are many other channels that customers have requested but they continue to ignore these requests.

There appears to be a chronic lack of even trying at Access.

I can only assume that they are spending all of their excess money on upgrading the smaller cable systems in small towns accross the province. This makes little sense to me as most people in these small towns have satellite tv instead of cable and there is a very low return on investment as a result. By doing this they are ignoring their core market and alienating the majority of their customers.

excatvdude · 2012-02-07, 07:51 PM

couldn't have said it better myself!

PhotoJim · 2012-02-07, 09:37 PM

From what I understand, they're basically out of bandwidth. Really, they should be reducing their analog cable service to free up space for HD channels but I imagine they'd have to get some low-cost cable boxes to provide to current analog cable customers for free to make that tolerable.

I'm annoyed at not having the local stations in HD on Access also, but they are available over the air... that's the beauty of it. Less compression than there'd be on cable, too.

Faster Internet is coming. DOCSIS 3 is coming. I don't know the launch date, but I know from a reliable source that they're working on it.

SaskTel might be doing well on the TV side, but they seriously dropped the ball on the cellular side and have only fixed it adequately in the last few weeks, so they don't get a full passing grade either.

brithgob · 2012-02-08, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhotoJim

I'm annoyed at not having the local stations in HD on Access also, but they are available over the air...

Only in Regina, not in any of the other communities Access serves.

dogger · 2012-02-09, 02:12 PM

They are not out of bandwidth yet, but they are getting close. If you connect a digital tuner to cable and do a channel scan on dtv cable you will find that there are still several channels that have nothing on them. Granted that some of the bandwidth that these channels occupy are reserved for internet and home phone. But there are still a good 10 to 12 analog channels that are not being used. So about 60 to 72 Mhz out of their 860 total bandwidth that is still available for use.

dogger · 2012-02-09, 02:14 PM

Also, lets not forget that only ctv, cbc, and cbc french are available over the air in HD. Global is too weak and their tower is located too far away to be have a detectable signal for a vast majority of Regina residents.

Neild · 2012-02-11, 03:43 PM

I think dogger is right, but I think it goes back much longer.

It's obvious limited bandwidth isn't the true issue though - I think it's bad leadership and a deeply entrenched culture of mediocrity. The proof is overwhelming.

Someone's scan shows lots of bandwidth available, and my own channel selection shows tons of old analog garbage channels remain while new and desirable channels are months or even years behind. There's numerous fluff analog channels (2, 7, 9, 13 etc) that could easily go digital and free up tons of space. It comes down to failed leadership that this didn't already happen years ago.

Canada's analog to digital HD transition timelines have been known for years, and yet Access Communications completely missed the boat. Local HD was supposed to be online 6 months ago, and there's no sign of it. They promised 25% loyal customer discount last summer, where is it?

And have you ever called in for service? Nowadays you're on hold forever, when it used to be almost instant. Bad management, which leads to and bad service.

And if you call in about a problem, the first well-scripted and practiced responses will all be how it's the customer's fault, the customer's equipment, the customer doesn't understand, etc.

Eventually it will turn out it's their fault, but getting to that realization is slow and painful. This shows the internal culture is one that's built around denying any responsibility or blame, and tries putting all blame on the customer.

Just search and you'll see years of stories of promises broken, delays after delays after delays, and services failing or going downhill.

As a coop, their gigantic profits are supposed to go back into tangible benefits for the members. That used to be true, but seems to have ceased many years ago. Or perhaps the leadership's idea of what constitutes a member benefit is the opposite of what most common people would agree with.

Perhaps the most ironic part was the name change to Access Communications is that they are probably the worst at communicating of any company in the industry. It's like a bed-ridden 650 lb guy calling himself 'Slim'.

PhotoJim · 2012-02-12, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dogger

Also, lets not forget that only ctv, cbc, and cbc french are available over the air in HD. Global is too weak and their tower is located too far away to be have a detectable signal for a vast majority of Regina residents.

A $100 attic antenna solved that problem for me (a cheaper one would probably do as well), but if your point is that many would not want to do this, I don't disagree.

dogger · 2012-02-12, 01:45 PM

I agree that a bigger antenna would probably work. But not everyone can do that. I do not own the home I live in and so I do not have access to the attic or the roof. I picked up a big 6 foot outdoor antenna from princess auto a while back as a test to see if I could even get Global. I am on the second floor so I am thinking this would equivalent to attic for some people. No matter which way I oriented it I could not get anything from Global. I was hoping to pick it up so that I could talk to the landlord and get permission to mount it, but no go. I live east of downtown so maybe signal is blocked from big buildings downtown.

Getting back to Access, I think the problem is with the current CEO. When Fred Wagman was in charge things got done very quickly but since Jim Deane took over its been a downhill slide. I still prefer Access over Slacktel but I wish they would "get with the program".

brithgob · 2012-02-12, 08:27 PM

The "garbage" channels were on 2, 9, 13 because they were "impaired" by OTA signals. That should no longer be an issue, right?

dogger · 2012-06-05, 10:29 AM

So if I lived in Saskatoon I could get cable internet speeds up to 250 Mb download. There slowest speed is equal to the fastest speed that Access offers. wtf?

bradmiller1347 · 2012-09-04, 11:53 PM

After long term customer of the top cable/internet package for many years we recently switched to SaskTel Max after receiving notification of an increase on our programming (which appears to be higher than other customers because we were on the old packaging) and the fact that the new HD channels just launched required us to use/purchase an additional couple of theme packages ($13.90/month total extra) where those customers on the new packaging received the new HD channels at no extra cost. What was frustrating is that we subscribe to the SD versions of these channels already. We don’t mind paying extra for HD but we are already doing that with the other HD theme packs we subscribe to (which totals more than the $9.99 extra that people on the new packaging pay). It was suggested by the customer service rep we talked to move to the new packaging but when it was worked out we would be receiving less channels for more money which didn’t make any sense to us.

We have noticed a few things that Access could improve on after having the SaskTel service for a few months now.

PVR:
SaskTel’s PVR is light-years ahead of the Access solution. It has a larger hard drive (we don’t have to quickly watch primetime shows in HD before they are automatically deleted). The guide and pvr functions are also in widescreen making it easier to read on widescreen TV’s. We also frequently use the online scheduling from a web browser and our cell phone feature which makes scheduling what you want to watch quite a bit easier (even the ability to use your computer keyboard to search shows is great.) The remote also has a 30sec skip feature… press it 6 times and the commercials are skipped and you are right back at your show instead of it being a hit and miss with the fast forward on the Access PVR (then needing to rewind so you don’t miss the start). Most of the larger cable companies no longer use the boxes that Access purchases for steep discounts and then rents out these refurbished and obsolete boxes at a high price. Another feature we liked was the guide is 2 weeks which allows you to setup recordings if you are going to be away longer than a week.

CHANNEL VARIETY:
SaskTel has a lot of popular HD channels that we now watch that Access does not have. This includes Axis, Discovery Channel HD, FX Canada. Access was starting to get better by adding a bunch of new channels recently but unfortunately most of them were not the channels we were looking to see and given their slow track record to add HD and new channels it would not surprise me if it would not be until at least next year before we see any of these if at all. When we have inquired over the years about channels that other providers have and they don’t, we have always been told that they are on it and currently in ‘negotiations’. I’m not sure who they have doing these negotiations but it shouldn’t take years to add a new hd channel . It’s clear that other television providers can close these deals in a time efficient manner without issues

NOT COMPETITIVE IN MARKET:

PVR - For the PVR access charges $14.95/month for an out dated refurbished model
Extra boxes are $4.95/extra. With SaskTel you get the PVR for $9.95 and extra boxes are only $3.95 and a more modern and advanced offering for a lower price offering the multi-room and remote scheduling features.

HD OPTION – Sasktel charges $10.00/month and includes many HD channels as well as the HD equivalent of the ones you subscribe to. Most notably it also includes the east/west HD network feeds. Access charges $9.95/month for a similar package but does NOT include the HD network feeds (that’s another $5.95/month option making moving to HD with the backs major networks at $5.90 more per month with Access. I looked around and many providers include the HD networks in their base HD package. It’s clear Access is doing this just as a money grab with this.

MOVIE CENTRAL – Access now charges $22.90 for Movie Central and Encore Avenue. With SaskTel it is just $18.95. Yes the difference is only 3.95 but saving this allows us to purchase other channels as well and SaskTel’s price includes the US Superstation theme package.

HOLLYWOOD SUITE – Sasktel allow you to include Hollywood Suite as a Theme pack so you don’t have to pay an additional amount like you do with Access. Given the fact that SaskTel basically charges theme packs out at buy 4 get 1 free this makes the price of Hollywood Suite less compared to needing to add it on at 5.95 with Access (you can’t use it as one of your 1, 3, 7, 12, 15 theme pack package). Furthermore SaskTel offers the Hollywood Suite On Demand in full HD giving you tons of HD movies you can watch included in the package where Access does not offer this.

THEME PACKAGES – Access theme packages include only 5 specialty channels. SaskTel theme packs are much bigger and commonly include 8-10 channels. Both providers essentially value the price of a theme pack at the same price. In our opinion you get more value with Sasktel theme packages.

INTERNET – SaskTel gives you unlimited internet. Access does not and downgrades your speed to dial-up speed if you download too much in prime time. We watched a season series on Netflix in one long day for most of the day and our internet was slowed down to a crawl the next day without any notice.

For these reasons and probably others we will be sticking with SaskTel until at least some of these things are corrected with Access. We did like Access for many things but they way they are starting to treat long term customers on the old packaging was a result of switching.

Blackloz · 2012-09-05, 04:43 PM

I couldn't agree with you more. I use Sasktel for all services except tv(I'm strictly a Satellite Guy) I recently convinced my grandmother to switch all her services over from Access to Sasktel(-tv as we got her Sat) and she's absolutely thrilled at how much she is saving, especially since she now owns her 2 Bell 6400's and is not spending anything on rental costs like she was with Access & the fact that the receivers are half the size of her big old Motorolla HD PVR's, Her internet is a lot better according to her now as well.

dogger · 2012-09-10, 02:44 AM

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2169637920.png

When I can get a faster internet connection in small town Sask from my cell phone, then Access is certainly failing badly...

2012-02-04, 11:23 AM	#1
dogger Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 52	Access not competing Has anyone noticed that over the last few years Access is not even trying to compete? They used to be one of the first cable co's to provide the latest and greatest and now they are one of the last, constantly playing catch up. They used to have faster internet than slack tel but they have not updated their speeds in a long time. Right now their fastest speed is slower. Slack Tel had multi room dvr first and currently offers remote dvr. Other cable co's currently offer internet speeds of 100 mb/s (Shaw in Saskatoon) and remote dvr (Rogers in Ontario). Not to mention that they still dont have local stations in HD and there are many other channels that customers have requested but they continue to ignore these requests. There appears to be a chronic lack of even trying at Access. I can only assume that they are spending all of their excess money on upgrading the smaller cable systems in small towns accross the province. This makes little sense to me as most people in these small towns have satellite tv instead of cable and there is a very low return on investment as a result. By doing this they are ignoring their core market and alienating the majority of their customers.

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2012-02-07, 07:51 PM	#2
excatvdude Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Grande Prairie, AB 1x3400M, 1xDCX700, 1xSB5680 NW, Wii, PS3 Posts: 148	couldn't have said it better myself!

2012-02-07, 09:37 PM	#3
PhotoJim Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Regina, SK, CA Posts: 618	From what I understand, they're basically out of bandwidth. Really, they should be reducing their analog cable service to free up space for HD channels but I imagine they'd have to get some low-cost cable boxes to provide to current analog cable customers for free to make that tolerable. I'm annoyed at not having the local stations in HD on Access also, but they are available over the air... that's the beauty of it. Less compression than there'd be on cable, too. Faster Internet is coming. DOCSIS 3 is coming. I don't know the launch date, but I know from a reliable source that they're working on it. SaskTel might be doing well on the TV side, but they seriously dropped the ball on the cellular side and have only fixed it adequately in the last few weeks, so they don't get a full passing grade either.

2012-02-09, 02:12 PM	#5
dogger Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 52	They are not out of bandwidth yet, but they are getting close. If you connect a digital tuner to cable and do a channel scan on dtv cable you will find that there are still several channels that have nothing on them. Granted that some of the bandwidth that these channels occupy are reserved for internet and home phone. But there are still a good 10 to 12 analog channels that are not being used. So about 60 to 72 Mhz out of their 860 total bandwidth that is still available for use.

2012-02-09, 02:14 PM	#6
dogger Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 52	Also, lets not forget that only ctv, cbc, and cbc french are available over the air in HD. Global is too weak and their tower is located too far away to be have a detectable signal for a vast majority of Regina residents.

2012-02-11, 03:43 PM	#7
Neild Veteran Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 2,017	I think dogger is right, but I think it goes back much longer. It's obvious limited bandwidth isn't the true issue though - I think it's bad leadership and a deeply entrenched culture of mediocrity. The proof is overwhelming. Someone's scan shows lots of bandwidth available, and my own channel selection shows tons of old analog garbage channels remain while new and desirable channels are months or even years behind. There's numerous fluff analog channels (2, 7, 9, 13 etc) that could easily go digital and free up tons of space. It comes down to failed leadership that this didn't already happen years ago. Canada's analog to digital HD transition timelines have been known for years, and yet Access Communications completely missed the boat. Local HD was supposed to be online 6 months ago, and there's no sign of it. They promised 25% loyal customer discount last summer, where is it? And have you ever called in for service? Nowadays you're on hold forever, when it used to be almost instant. Bad management, which leads to and bad service. And if you call in about a problem, the first well-scripted and practiced responses will all be how it's the customer's fault, the customer's equipment, the customer doesn't understand, etc. Eventually it will turn out it's their fault, but getting to that realization is slow and painful. This shows the internal culture is one that's built around denying any responsibility or blame, and tries putting all blame on the customer. Just search and you'll see years of stories of promises broken, delays after delays after delays, and services failing or going downhill. As a coop, their gigantic profits are supposed to go back into tangible benefits for the members. That used to be true, but seems to have ceased many years ago. Or perhaps the leadership's idea of what constitutes a member benefit is the opposite of what most common people would agree with. Perhaps the most ironic part was the name change to Access Communications is that they are probably the worst at communicating of any company in the industry. It's like a bed-ridden 650 lb guy calling himself 'Slim'.

2012-02-12, 01:45 PM	#9
dogger Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 52	I agree that a bigger antenna would probably work. But not everyone can do that. I do not own the home I live in and so I do not have access to the attic or the roof. I picked up a big 6 foot outdoor antenna from princess auto a while back as a test to see if I could even get Global. I am on the second floor so I am thinking this would equivalent to attic for some people. No matter which way I oriented it I could not get anything from Global. I was hoping to pick it up so that I could talk to the landlord and get permission to mount it, but no go. I live east of downtown so maybe signal is blocked from big buildings downtown. Getting back to Access, I think the problem is with the current CEO. When Fred Wagman was in charge things got done very quickly but since Jim Deane took over its been a downhill slide. I still prefer Access over Slacktel but I wish they would "get with the program".

2012-02-12, 08:27 PM	#10
brithgob Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Saskatchewan Posts: 31	The "garbage" channels were on 2, 9, 13 because they were "impaired" by OTA signals. That should no longer be an issue, right?

2012-06-05, 10:29 AM	#11
dogger Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 52	So if I lived in Saskatoon I could get cable internet speeds up to 250 Mb download. There slowest speed is equal to the fastest speed that Access offers. wtf?

2012-09-04, 11:53 PM	#12
bradmiller1347 Rookie Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 2	After long term customer of the top cable/internet package for many years we recently switched to SaskTel Max after receiving notification of an increase on our programming (which appears to be higher than other customers because we were on the old packaging) and the fact that the new HD channels just launched required us to use/purchase an additional couple of theme packages ($13.90/month total extra) where those customers on the new packaging received the new HD channels at no extra cost. What was frustrating is that we subscribe to the SD versions of these channels already. We don’t mind paying extra for HD but we are already doing that with the other HD theme packs we subscribe to (which totals more than the $9.99 extra that people on the new packaging pay). It was suggested by the customer service rep we talked to move to the new packaging but when it was worked out we would be receiving less channels for more money which didn’t make any sense to us. We have noticed a few things that Access could improve on after having the SaskTel service for a few months now. PVR: SaskTel’s PVR is light-years ahead of the Access solution. It has a larger hard drive (we don’t have to quickly watch primetime shows in HD before they are automatically deleted). The guide and pvr functions are also in widescreen making it easier to read on widescreen TV’s. We also frequently use the online scheduling from a web browser and our cell phone feature which makes scheduling what you want to watch quite a bit easier (even the ability to use your computer keyboard to search shows is great.) The remote also has a 30sec skip feature… press it 6 times and the commercials are skipped and you are right back at your show instead of it being a hit and miss with the fast forward on the Access PVR (then needing to rewind so you don’t miss the start). Most of the larger cable companies no longer use the boxes that Access purchases for steep discounts and then rents out these refurbished and obsolete boxes at a high price. Another feature we liked was the guide is 2 weeks which allows you to setup recordings if you are going to be away longer than a week. CHANNEL VARIETY: SaskTel has a lot of popular HD channels that we now watch that Access does not have. This includes Axis, Discovery Channel HD, FX Canada. Access was starting to get better by adding a bunch of new channels recently but unfortunately most of them were not the channels we were looking to see and given their slow track record to add HD and new channels it would not surprise me if it would not be until at least next year before we see any of these if at all. When we have inquired over the years about channels that other providers have and they don’t, we have always been told that they are on it and currently in ‘negotiations’. I’m not sure who they have doing these negotiations but it shouldn’t take years to add a new hd channel . It’s clear that other television providers can close these deals in a time efficient manner without issues NOT COMPETITIVE IN MARKET: PVR - For the PVR access charges $14.95/month for an out dated refurbished model Extra boxes are $4.95/extra. With SaskTel you get the PVR for $9.95 and extra boxes are only $3.95 and a more modern and advanced offering for a lower price offering the multi-room and remote scheduling features. HD OPTION – Sasktel charges $10.00/month and includes many HD channels as well as the HD equivalent of the ones you subscribe to. Most notably it also includes the east/west HD network feeds. Access charges $9.95/month for a similar package but does NOT include the HD network feeds (that’s another $5.95/month option making moving to HD with the backs major networks at $5.90 more per month with Access. I looked around and many providers include the HD networks in their base HD package. It’s clear Access is doing this just as a money grab with this. MOVIE CENTRAL – Access now charges $22.90 for Movie Central and Encore Avenue. With SaskTel it is just $18.95. Yes the difference is only 3.95 but saving this allows us to purchase other channels as well and SaskTel’s price includes the US Superstation theme package. HOLLYWOOD SUITE – Sasktel allow you to include Hollywood Suite as a Theme pack so you don’t have to pay an additional amount like you do with Access. Given the fact that SaskTel basically charges theme packs out at buy 4 get 1 free this makes the price of Hollywood Suite less compared to needing to add it on at 5.95 with Access (you can’t use it as one of your 1, 3, 7, 12, 15 theme pack package). Furthermore SaskTel offers the Hollywood Suite On Demand in full HD giving you tons of HD movies you can watch included in the package where Access does not offer this. THEME PACKAGES – Access theme packages include only 5 specialty channels. SaskTel theme packs are much bigger and commonly include 8-10 channels. Both providers essentially value the price of a theme pack at the same price. In our opinion you get more value with Sasktel theme packages. INTERNET – SaskTel gives you unlimited internet. Access does not and downgrades your speed to dial-up speed if you download too much in prime time. We watched a season series on Netflix in one long day for most of the day and our internet was slowed down to a crawl the next day without any notice. For these reasons and probably others we will be sticking with SaskTel until at least some of these things are corrected with Access. We did like Access for many things but they way they are starting to treat long term customers on the old packaging was a result of switching.

2012-09-05, 04:43 PM	#13
Blackloz Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Regina,SK & Plentywood MT Posts: 855	I couldn't agree with you more. I use Sasktel for all services except tv(I'm strictly a Satellite Guy) I recently convinced my grandmother to switch all her services over from Access to Sasktel(-tv as we got her Sat) and she's absolutely thrilled at how much she is saving, especially since she now owns her 2 Bell 6400's and is not spending anything on rental costs like she was with Access & the fact that the receivers are half the size of her big old Motorolla HD PVR's, Her internet is a lot better according to her now as well.

2012-09-10, 02:44 AM	#14
dogger Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 52	http://www.speedtest.net/result/2169637920.png When I can get a faster internet connection in small town Sask from my cell phone, then Access is certainly failing badly...