After 3 calls to MTS internet tech support they got the speed right, manually. First 2 (different reps) said those speeds were average, pretended to agree and called back a few hours later hoping for a rep that knows something about their own service. Now the speed itself is fine, well half of it.. when the line is at its absolute best I get 8.6Mbps/1.8Mbps. Seems ok at first, but there is a major problem that most overlook as I doubt iam the only one with it.
That major problem, is latency. This is flat out, the main reason I was disgusted with MTS in 2003 when we first tried their "high speed" and is the reason why I still am disgusted with them. I get nothing but near constant latency spikes to any and only MTS's gateway servers, which of coarse delays everything else after it, which is only any connection on the net. See picture, issue is very visible:
See Shaw's result, the wonderful ping to their servers. That latency performance has stayed the same for the last 4.5 years since we had Shaw. Excellent service, they advertised 15Mbps/1Mbps for Highspeed Extreme (which was the package we had till Dec 1) and I got 20-30Mbps downstream thanks to powerboost and a constant 1Mbps upstream to most servers.
With MTS.. mm no. What I said above when I said most of MTS's actual throughput speed is fine.. upload is the problem there. It seems I have to constantly unplug the RG2400 gateway box to reset it in order to get my upload speed back, if I don't it sits at 0.7Mbps ~ 0.9Mbps.. also if I stay disconnected for long periods of time such as when iam sleeping, my upload speed will vanish in the morning. After playing "lets unplug the RG2400 to get decent upstream speed" game for at least 10 minutes it will come back and USUALLY stay for the day then rinse and repeat..
With a total of over 20 calls to MTS the "best" result was a technician coming to our place to do yet more line checks saying the speed is fine. Yeah.. with the exception of Shaw's 1Mbps upload beating MTS's 2Mbps upload my speed is fine, LATENCY is my problem. Had to literally explain to him for quite a while what latency is.. After checking stuff he can't find the problem (well go figure, its not on my end, its on MTS's) and recommended the following:
1. Go with MTS Ultimate TV for more speed.
-.... I said my problem is latency, throwing more speed down that line isn't going to fix it, not to mention that costs even more and I can get Shaws top of the line speed package for less than that probably.
2. Get a dedicated line installed for just the internet.
-*Could* help but I doubt it, and this is why. As we know MTS likes to use the horrible, outdated, slow telephone line for their "High speed" internet. As you see I already have a bad delay to their gateway servers when the line is at its best. The best it would do is have all the bandwidth free for the net, too bad we don't have Lightning Bolt package or something to even try to utilize it, with latency probably staying the same. Since MTS insisted getting the dedicated line is not going to add any $ to the bill I said do it. Dec 21 its supposed to come.
The tech also replaced the main phone wiring in our unit, not even a 1ms difference in latency and its still spiking. Ventrilo, online games, hell even downloading all shows the spikes HORRIBELY, ping in vent went from 45ms (stable) with Shaw to 70ms with MTS then to 400ms+ when it wants to spike. It only does it 10+ times per minute
I do find it sad that Shaw is offering the following packages:
-High speed: 7.5Mbps/512Kbps w/Powerboost 60GB/mo limit for $43.95 Unbundled
-High speed Extreme: 15Mbps/1Mbps w/Powerboost 100GB/mo limit for $53.95 Unbundled
*Trust me, powerboost works so well... I can't even describe it.
While MTS is offering the following packages in direct competition:
-Lightning: 7Mbps/2Mbps 60GB/mo limit for $44.95
-Lightning Plus: 7Mbps/2Mbps 60GB/mo limit for $54.95
You're kidding me.. I advise you look at MTS's 2 packages and their prices, very, very, carefully. This is not counting the fact Shaw is on the future, using cable with stable LOW pings while MTS is struggling to provide a service using A/VDSL with high unstable pings.
I phoned their "complaint line" yesterday explaining my problem, the lady didn't even know ANYTHING about internet, not even latency.. she said she will contact someone higher up in MTS that would understand my problem and call me back. I knew that was just a good bye, and sure enough they sat on it yet again, no call back.
Think I said most of the problem, upload speed is poor, latency is poor. Poor latency is one thing, UNSTABLE poor latency is another, combine both and you're putting money down the toilet. I am going to keep phoning them until I get through to someone with power in that company, someone that will note this problem and that their internet infrastructure is well, failing and going to collapse sometime not too far away. Knowing MTS they will try to fix it after 50,000 people clog their lines calling about 500ms pings.
Only reason we are on MTS is because of some promotion thing that came in the mail $67/mo for internet, TV and phone and of coarse my father jumped on it. Going to keep trying to convince him to go back to the real company, Shaw, and stop wasting money. Or at least switch the internet over, Shaw is faster AND cheaper ARGH!! I also do have authorization of our MTS account as my father said, and MTS knows this.
What a huge rant.. hope my problem is clear. What do MTS "experts" think about them as a company and this problem? I say experts because many people of this forum know more about MTS than MTS. Iam one of them.. sometimes I think its bad to know too much.
