[Shaw Champ]

The Extreme Internet service was up to 15mbps download and up to 1mbps upload speed.

The new levels for Extreme Speed are up to 25mbps download and up to 2.5mbps upload

No change in pricing.

New Customers – Beginning today (April 20th) all new Extreme customers will be provisioned at the new service level.

Existing Customers – It may take up to 30 days to reprovision all existing Extreme customers to the new service levels. We will work on this as quickly as possible so that all customers can enjoy the new speeds!

 

[hugh]

How much is the Extreme Internet service?

 

[supergenius]

Wow, I sure do miss my Shaw extreme internet! Just before I left Calgary last August I was paying $43 a month for extreme.

 

[hugh]

Found pricing. Extreme is $59 a month with $10 discount for bundling.

 

[downbeat]

Will the data transfer limit remain 100 GB/month?

 

[hugh]

No change in bandwidth cap 100GB.

 

[vango44]

Nice that the price stays the same.

Unfortunately, I figure that it if you were downloading/streaming at the max rate (25mbs), it would only take 9-10 hours to reach your 30 day cap.

Obviously most would never be getting 25mbs all the time but I think they really should be a little more reasonable in light of the increased speeds.

 

[PokerChip]

vango44,

that's the whole point behind the speed boost. Create more appetite for downloading at higher bit rates so you can have more people going over their cap limits by more GB per month, thus resulting in extra revenue when they start charging.

Forgive me for being cynical, but one thing I've learned with telcos/satcos/cablecos is "there ain't no free lunch".

 

[pumaman]

Looks like I'll be dropping my Warp service then. I almost never hit my 50MB speed (because of the *other* servers, not Shaw, my Shaw service is fine). And now for half the price, I still get 25MB and almost the same upload speed as Warp?

C'mon Shaw, upgrade the Warp service or I'm back to Extreme.

Edit: I'm not trying to be a jerk, it's just for $50 less a month, I still get a hell of service.

 

[audacity]

Edit: I'm not trying to be a jerk, it's just for $50 less a month, I still get a hell of service.

I suspect we'll see more price/speed changes.

 

[Seluhir]

@vango
No internet provider designs their limits around a person using it consistently.

The reason for high internet speeds is simple: To get you off the internet faster.

A Node, for any provider, has less than what EVERYONE is capable of using if everyone were using their maximum all the time. So the providers want you to finish what you're doing and then make use of what you did with your bandwidth. So if you're downloading music, streaming a movie, loading a page, etc. They want you to finish downloading it as soon as possible and then spend the rest of the time listening to the music, watching the movie, playing the game you just downloaded/patched, reading the website, etc - so your 25 megs per second is back in the pool to be used by someone else.

It isn't so you can overuse more, it is so you can be done quicker. They HOPE that you wouldn't use it to do more, that you would in stead use it to do the same amount FASTER so that you can be done quicker to get on to the enjoying what you got faster.

Edit: Also - one more thing - Shaw isn't even charging for bandwidth as yet. No announcements about bandwidth charges save that it is still in discussion.

 

[vango44]

@Seluhir

I agree with what you're saying for the most part. It's reasonable for Shaw to want you to be done quicker to free bandwidth for other customers. In fact this should make all parties happier.

But understand that all I said was that they should be a little more reasonable. The unofficial cap really hasn't changed much in several years. In that time I have subscribed to an online backup service, Netflix, online music service, and also rent movies occasionally from another service.
I also have 3 teen/preteen kids who have probably increased their use 3-5 fold.

If they increase the speed by 60%, it seems reasonable to increase the cap a little.

As you say though, this is a moot point until they actually start charging for the usage.

 

[Coop]

Will existing customers be getting a new router? is this why it will take up to a month?

 

[trekkie604]

OK, if anyone wants to confirm this - just looks like you need to reset your modem. After it comes back, you get automatically re-provisioned to the faster speeds.

Before:

After:

Note this is peak time in Vancouver, about 6:30pm.

 

[van der Decken]

A modem reset did the trick for me as well.

 

[lumberslayer]

.

Doesn't seem like a speed boost to me i constantly hit those speeds on extreme before this so called upgrade. As you can see from my upload speed haven't been provisioned..

On peak time at 8:30 pm on the coast.

Seems kind of funny how they increased the speeds yet rates went up and the secretly took away 20GB of the cap. Extreme used to have 120GB caps now it's 100GB that changed end of January 2011.

Seems their setting you up to download faster to exceed caps to start charging.

After reset, Sucks...They can promise 50MBps problem is node saturation at peaks times you will never hit their claimed speeds. Glad to see i don't get what i pay for but this is nothing new with Shaw.

 

[PokerChip]

Here's my result in Edmonton after a modem reset. Upload looks good, but who cares? Download is only half of what it should be:

 

[57]

Just as an FYI, I pay $38 (bundled) for Rogers Express - 10 Mbps down, 0.5 up, 60 GB cap, Rogers has speedboost, hence the higher download test result for these short tests - during the first few seconds, I was above 30 Mbps. Speedboost applies to the first 10 MB of the download, if available on the system.

Wonder how they do the calculation for the % of Canada - I'm faster down and ping than PokerChip, but have a worse rating - I guess due to the upload. I don't care much about the upload as long as my "signal request" gets through quickly enough. I rarely upload anything.

 

[dlEVERYTHING]

Its awesome that their finally upgrading the upload speeds. I just wish they would upgrade the Lite for cheapos like myself.

 

[Shaw Champ]

Just an update.

Shaw will re-provision all current customers modems within the next 30 days however, performing a powercycle can lock the modem to the new speeds but is not always guaranteed. (if you are trying right away)

Confirming bundled price is $49.00 and standalone price is $59.00 at regular rates for the Extreme level if Internet service.

Yes there is a 100gb Monthly transfer limit and yes to date no one has ever paid a cent if they went over that limit.

In my opinion I expect more formal news end May/ start June on potential other changes and usage based billing. I am hopeful of other levels of speeds on different plans to change too.