[graham2112]

Just moved to Halifax and trying to decide between Eastlink and Aliant for all 3 services - phone, high speed internet, and HD cable. I don't do a ton of downloading, but overall internet speed and always-on reliability are very important. I have 2 HD TVs and I want the best reception, selection and service available.

Anyone care to share their comments, advice and experiences?
Thanks, in advance for taking the time to read and respond.

Cheers, Graham

 

[jean luc picard]

aliant in halifax is limited to 1 hd feed last i checked, so if you want hd on both sets eastlink is the easy choice at the moment. that will all change next year when aliant finally rolls out microsoft's mediaroom. eastlink if faster and in my experience more reliable. you'll have to check their websites for pricing and channel availability.

 

[maritimer555]

Leaving Eastlink for better deal at Aliant

Hi Folks,

I was paying @ $96 for surf & talk at Eastlink.

Alaint offered me the "Best" bundle (which includes HD TV and PVR) for 12 months at $99. 1 free theme (value $5) as well as extra free receiver for 12 months.
No contract. Free install.

That gets me better internet speed and TSN Montreal. IMHO the TV & phone is a wash as some things are better or worse depending on your personal preferences.

In summary, i'm paying Alaint about $19 extra dollars (compared to what I payed Eastlink) after tax for HD TV and PVR and 1 theme.

 

[jimbo42]

Each to our own I guess but no matter what deal Bell Aliant offered me I would not choose them over Eastlink. For one Eastlink has a lot more HD then Bell Aliant and also how much internet speed do you or anyone actually need above and beyond the 20mbit/2mbit unlimited you get in the bundle from Eastlink?

For me having as many HD channels as I can get is more important and thats where Eastlink has it over Bell Aliant.

I've seen Bell Aliants HD PQ on many HDTV's and Eastlinks PQ is way better also.

As for TSN Montreal, RDSHD fixes that which shows every single Canadians Games not on CBC

So your paying $19 more than what you were paying Eastlink yet your getting less HD?

 

[smallmj]

My mother has started to switch back and forth every year. The only hiccup was switching email addresses, but I switched her to gmail, so that shouldn't be an issue anymore.

Those promo offers really do increase churn.

It would take a lot to get me to switch to Aliant. I've had some terrible customer service experiences with them over the years (at client's houses.) That said, their FibreOp speeds and prices finally give them something competitive in places where it is available.

FibreOp is not available around here. I dread going to clients' houses that have Aliant High Speed at 1.5 megabits/sec. Its about the same as the Wireless High Speed from Seaside.

Mark

 

[ta guy]

I switched from eastlink to bell for tv last week. I got tired of waiting for eastlink to add more hd. Now I have all kinds of hd even space. Not saving any money but man does the pvr work some good(not jumpy).

 

[danjorgensen]

I love Eastlink for the Basic Phone and Internet Bundle for a Great Price. Don't Care about the 1.5 mbits max cap but the price is GREAT!!

 

[ta guy]

I still have the phone and internet threw eastlink. They work really great and people around here that had bell and eastlink claim that the eastlink internet was much faster.

 

[Tridus]

Each to our own I guess but no matter what deal Bell Aliant offered me I would not choose them over Eastlink. For one Eastlink has a lot more HD then Bell Aliant and also how much internet speed do you or anyone actually need above and beyond the 20mbit/2mbit unlimited you get in the bundle from Eastlink?

Yes, absolutely. Anybody doing anything resembling work on their Internet connection will notice the difference between 20/2 and 50/30 in about five seconds. It's not even close.

Ever fire up a torrent client or play a game with significant patch sizes? Once again, the difference is huge and immediately apparent.

You might only ever download smaller things where it isn't as big a deal, but it's a silly question to ask if anyone ever needs more than what is actually a fairly slow connection by worldwide standards. I mean, a few years ago it was the same thing only with "5/0.384" from Aliant's DSL, and who wants to go back to that today? (If DSL is what you're stuck with from Aliant, there's really no reason to go with them at all.)

 

[jimbo42]

lol ok, for one the only reason for anyone to need more than the 20/2 that eastlink offers is if their downloading loads of illegal content(bluray movies,games etc...) which i assume you do since you mention a torrent client. Yes I know their are legitimate things for torrents but lets not fool anyone here its mostly used for illegal purposes, I've seen it all in my profession.

Using netflix etc... 20/2 is more than enough.

Doing regular everyday things on the internet does not require anything more than a a 20/2 connection or less.

I'm a computer technician, i know how these things work LOL................

We can sit here all day and go back and forth but at the end of the day most users can get by perfectly fine with 20/2 or less.

 

[Tridus]

Ever play any games? World of Warcraft's patcher is a torrent client. Those patches tend to be pretty large. I believe the "oh it's probably piracy" line was the one Rogers used when it traffic shaped all those people who were trying to patch their game. Nice.

On a related note, the extra download speed will chop the time to download anything bought off Steam by half (and then some), which easily translates into a half hour or more. You don't "need" that, but it's awfully nice to be playing instead of watching a progress bar.

The upload has obvious uses if you're doing anything other than just consuming content. Ever uploaded a video to Youtube? The gap between 30 and 2 is humongous. Photo galleries? Same thing. I VPN into work and routinely have to work with large files, and it's just unusably painful at low speed (at 30 it's practically like being in the office most of the time).

What you originally asked is why anyone would need that speed, which is an absurd statement to make. It's pretty easy to find people who do need it, and find a lot of other people who would benefit from it without "needing" it, because strictly speaking your average consumption only user could probably get by with a 5mbps download plan. Not that anybody really wants to go back to that.

 

[Byte]

EastLink in Halifax advertises with having more HD (and On-Demand) channels than FibreOP "dare to compare": http://www.eastlink.ca/daretocompare.aspx

 

[Danster]

Of that list, if it is true, Aliant will be adding some of the ones missing from Eastlink in May.

Also, for computer data, does Eastlink have caps?

 

[file]

Eastlink has caps on their 80Mbps and higher packages. 'tis 250GB/mth

 

[Danster]

...which they don't "Dare to compare"

 

[greenshadow]

Actually they have a cap on their 40mb also just the 20mb is unlimited

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2

 

[file]

Oh, so they do. Wasn't expecting THAT.

 

[greenshadow]

Yup I work from home on a vpn and had the 40mb for the upload and used my cap in no time when you use 20gb a day its easy lol happe with the 30mb upload with aliant

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2

 

[Testo]

@ Jimbo

Each to our own I guess but no matter what deal Bell Aliant offered me I would not choose them over Eastlink

This opening statement sets the tone of your comment. Anybody reading your posts from here on out should take what you say about either company with a grain of salt.

I'm a computer technician, i know how these things work LOL..

I don't know why but when people state things like this it gets under my skin. Computer tech / = knowing anything about networking.


Back to the point.

https://support.netflix.com/en/node/87 (2.8GB/hour when watching HD, you complain about Bell Aliants HD so obviously you would be watching netflix HD)

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA1417/how-much-bandwidth-does-skype-need
(Recommened 1.2Mbps down AND upload.

XBox/Ps3/PC online gaming + Voice server

Internet surfing/Facebook picture uploading/Shutterfly, etc.

A family of 4 each doing their own thing would hit the 20/2 Eastlink connection without even trying.

I have a 10 meg Aliant connection and I cap out on 1 PC between online gaming/Vent server/surfing.


Don't assume

most users can get by perfectly fine with 20/2 or less

 

[greenshadow]

the biggest issue i've got with eastlink internet is the upload speed 2mb that's peanuts. with bell i get 30 and now adays its nice to have the higher upload, i save my files on a cloud server and its so nice. even uploading pictures to the costco / walmart website is faster. i could see a regular user being frustrated by this, i was one! since i work from home also the upload is nice. even with eastlink i would notice a slow down with the family watching netflix ect. for sure eastlink has their advantages and i wont doubt that but until they can match what bell has for internet on their "100% fiber network" then i wont switch back