Much as I hate the thoughts of going to Bell, I spoke to them yesterday, in terms of HD, Videotron can't touch them, and likely can't for a very long time if ever.
That said, I asked for a call back on Nov. 20th. At which point I'll cancel Videotron and move to Bell, I'm getting sick of the "We're working on it" and not seeing any tangible results. I'm paying a premium for HD, I have all HD panels, I sure as hell shouldn't have to press the zoom button because Videotron can't provide me the content in a way that my devices want.
I had base + 20 "a la carte" ... and yes the TV receivers and internet all share the same 25Mbps pipe to your home. Current max is 3 HD's + 1 SD receivers (each HD requires 7M bps and each SD requires 3Mpbs so do the math). The TVs have priority so if you have all your TVs going (or recording something) your internet suffers badly. This is a big difference from Videotron but I can live with it as we rarely have 2 HD's going at the same time. The channel selection is much better on Fibe but they get you on the packages since not all of the channels are available a la carte (or pick and choose) so I can roped into ordering some pkgs to get TSNHD as an example. I give Bell 6 months or until Illico 2.0 (Nextgen or whatever they're calling it this week) comes out and then we'll see if I switch back.
I live in a fairly new neighborhood of condos built in 2003-2004. I do recall when deciding on which service to choose when moving there, a Bell sales guy I spoke with told me they had already run fiber-optic cables there for future expansion. However, I live in a 6-unit townhouse-style condo building with an entry panel serving all units. I assume this would be the node? I do know there are two wires coming into my unit, one being coax for cable TV and the other for phone (I have no idea if it's fiber-optic or not).
Unless there has been a specific announcement regarding your area and FTTH, it's very likely that it's FTTN, since there are very very few locations with FTTH. Here's a post with links to the relevant articles, etc.
Lots of people confuse Fibe with FTTH, when in the vast majority of cases it's not, it's FTTN.
SteveT, if you can get 50 Mbps Internet, it's possible that your line will run at 50 Mbps and only the Internet portion will be capped at 25 Mbps. In this case, your TV viewing will not affect your Internet speed.
just wanted to know how do the bell techs install all receivers?
Ill be getting 4 hd boxes, wanted to know since everything in the house is setup with coax at the moment.
for the internet, I want to use my router, so basically have a cable from the modem to my router. i read in a post that it will decrease speed a bit?
If it's a Cellpipe modem and you intend on using wifi, it's advised to use your own, the wireless performance on the Cellpipe is terrible at best.
If it's a Sagemcom it works great, the only reason to use yours over the Sagemcom would be if you needed to use 5Ghz.
If you don't need any of the above reasons for using your own, it's my personal opinion, that it may well be better to just use the Bell provided equipment rather than introducing another variable that may cause issues down the road. That said, I have a Sagemcom, with it's wireless disabled, and I'm using a Linksys e4200v1 because I need 5Ghz wireless, I am not using the 4200 as a router, it's an access point, there's nothing plugged into the "internet" port.
thanks for the reply. so is there any difference in quality between using coax and ethernet for fibe tv?
the router issue, i just bought a e3200 wireless n, dual band, i dont think (or know) if their modem offers those capabilities or is as good (speed wise)
The Bell router is different in that it allows for PPPoE connection directly to Bell for your internet and also handles the login/connection for Fibe's IPTV. It has a pretty basic mgmt interface ... I was used to DDWRT on my Netgear.
I was looking at the a la carte channel selection in this Bell fibe document
On page 3 under the heading "Customize your programing select your channels one-by-one" they list the a la carte selections for 15/20/30 channels.
Some channels are shown boxed together such as TSN & TSN2, RDS, RDS HD, RDS 2 & RDS2 HD etc.
Does this mean that channels inside a box count as a single a la carte channel selection or do each of the individual channels in the box need to be counted separately?
this is what I dont understand, Im going with the carte 30 channels, the bell customer service keep telling me that by choosing tsn and tsn2 (reg channels) you automatically get them in HD for free on Fibe.
But Im 99.9% I will need to order them as part of the hd theme packs.
can I call and complain after and tell them that 3 people told me I wont need the HD theme packs?
can they do something about that?
You 100% need TSN in the SD version AND in the HD theme pack.
TSN/TSN2/NBA TV are the only channels with this requirement.
Perhaps you are not speaking to the reps in Canada, but the reps overseas.
Im pretty sure they were reps here, i called early in the evening, and their english was almost stronger than mine.
but i think its this fibe tv thats confusing them, they keep telling me with fibe wtv you have in standard you get in HD, but i knew this wouldnt be true.
(I debated posting this here or in the Videotron forum. Since it deals with leaving Videotron for Fibe, I'll leave it here and let the moderators decide)
Ok, so I'm planning a switch to Fibe in the coming weeks. Anything I need to know about cancelling my Videotron service (TV, internet, phone)?
I believe there's a 30-day notice requirement. Anyone know if this is tied to the monthly turnover date?
I rent my PVR, so I'll have to return that. For my other receivers (2xSD, 1xHD), can I give them to family or friends still with Videotron? Do I have to de-activate them first, or will that occur automatically?
I do not know about a 30 day warning,. When I moved to Fibe I just phoned them to ask when my billing date was because you typically pay one month in advance. When that date came I just cancelled my service and two weeks later I recieved a cheque (credit)from videotron for the amount I did not use.
No warning is required in Quebec.
You can jump out at any time, I did 1 week into my billing cycle, about 2 months later I got a cheque in the mail from Videotron.
nitra is right, there is no notice period required. However, sometimes ago Videotron gave rebate for PVR purchase. That rebate was conditional of subscribing for some time (I forget exactly how long). So one needs to check whether there is any outstanding contract with Videotron.
For SteveT, your receivers are yours. You can sell them, give them away, donate them, whatever you want. You do not need to do anything to them. Your beneficiary does not need to do anything as well. Videotron will know which terminal is where. Maybe the recipient should just call Videotron to inform them about the new terminals.
I just moved from Videotron to Bell Fibe last week. So far everything is smooth and steady, from both Videotron's or Bell's side. The only thing was when I called Videotron to cancel the first time, they tried to keep me by offering low-rent HD PVR and not logging my cancellation right away. A week after that I called them again declining their offer and they logged my cancellation.
You can do a comparison, if you overlap services for a week or two. Just have Bell install cat5 and keep your coax intact. Bell is more expensive, since they push the 50/50/250Gb cap package in typical Ftth installations; fantastic if you really need it. But about 30$ more/month for 3 bundled services.
What kind of setup does one get with Fibe using a Smart TV?
I currently use a Videotron supplied wireless router that lets me access the Net through the TV and see files on my PC (Samsung AllShare).
Is it the same setup? Do I have to purchase my own router?
TIA
A smart tv will be treated like any other unsupported internet able device, and for the tv side, its treated and connected just like a television set, component cables from the receiver to the smart tv just like any other tv. if you use the internet on your tv, you are not using the fibe tv service any more, your accessing the internet on your smart tv via the fibe internet portion, so its like using the internet on a computer, but because its not a pc they support they may treat it as unsupported if u have connectivity troubles
Is this an extra charge? Do they set it up when they come install the Fibe?
Thanks
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