Start.ca - TV and Internet service not reliable, and not satisfactory!
So I convinced my sister to switch from Cogeco to Start.ca starting in January. Start promised faster Internet for less, and a comparable TV package compared to Cogeco. It came down to getting what you pay for I guess.
Although the Internet service was being provided by Start.ca using Cogeco lines, the Internet kept dropping. It had the promised speed of 100 Mbps, however it would just pause for no particular reason, at different times of the day.
On top of that, the Android set top boxes for the 3 TVs in her home would freeze on the Start TV app, which required either rebooting the box itself, or having to force quit the app from the Settings menu. This would happen 1-4 times per day in the first couple weeks of having the service. And at other times, the TV guide menu would just not populate on the screen - you would see the times and channels on the rows and column labels, but the shows themselves would just appear as blank blocks on the screen. Again, you had to reboot the box or force quit the app on the Android box to rectify it, only to have it happen again a few hours later.
And finally, she also wanted to move her telephone number from Cogeco to Start. We were promised there would be no problem porting the number from an old business number over to a residential number if the address and names matched, which they did. After 6 weeks of attempts, the number was still not ported over, however Start was charging her for the telephone service that wasn't yet activated.
So, in summary: Interruptions in Internet service quality, poor performance on TV service, and billed for telephone service that could not be provided.
After 6 weeks of this, we have moved her back to Cogeco, who agreed to match Start's price (and offered an even better channel package with a guaranteed price for 2 years) just to get her back.
I would NOT recommend Start.ca service to anyone based on this recent experience!