[Gentleman]

Man I love TS.

"Your TekSavvy Internet package, Cable 30 Lite / Câble 30 Lite with 200 download on OIDXXXXXX is having the monthly cost dropped from $46.95 to $44.95 on your next billing cycle! That's a drop of $2 on your regular monthly package price, and you're getting Unlimited usage. No action on your part is required – it’s just going to happen automatically."

"For years, TekSavvy sounded the alarm about incumbents gaming the system to inflate wholesale rates, which meant retail Internet prices were too high. We struggled to compete while the incumbents overcharged their competitors like us. Finally, after a lengthy regulatory battle, the CRTC corrected the rates to more reasonable levels. Now, we’re passing those savings on to you – our valued customers."

 

[Bpke]

Now that's something you don't see often, price cuts. Awesome.

 

[57]

Actually, with internet service providers, the price per mbps download has been going down a lot. I know that with Rogers, if you're willing to live with a certain download speed, you spend a lot less now than years ago. Or you can spend the same amount and get a faster download speed.

This may, or may not happen automatically, but a discussion with your ISP is in order every year or two to get what you want/need.

 

[JamesK]

This may, or may not happen automatically, but a discussion with your ISP is in order every year or two to get what you want/need.

Last time I called Rogers about my package, they even gave me a date about when would be a good time to call them back.

 

[Ed7789]

This is not the first time TekSavvy drops their customer's prices. If I recall correctly, they did the same in 2016 when the previous revision of wholesale prices occurred.

 

[bev fan]

Prices have gone down because CRTC had ordered big telcos to cut internet prices that they charge third party internet providers.
This price cut may not last as they have taken CRTC to court and have threatened to cut down on new upgrades to smaller communities.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/overrule-crtc-wholesale-rates-1.5283411

 

[NeilN]

This may, or may not happen automatically, but a discussion with your ISP is in order every year or two to get what you want/need.

Thanks for the prod. Checked online and saw I could get Rogers' Internet Gigabit plan for less than what I'm paying now for their Ignite 250u plan. Off to exchange my modem this afternoon.

 

[Gentleman]

I know that with Rogers, if you're willing to live with a certain download speed, you spend a lot less now than years ago. Or you can spend the same amount and get a faster download speed.

This may, or may not happen automatically, but a discussion with your ISP is in order every year or two to get what you want/need.

You guys must work for Rogers.

Just kidding. But every time I've called and talked with their CSR's, they cannot match what I'm getting from TSI. Which leads to the burning question. If the major players can sell bulk bandwidth to the TPIA's and make a profit, and the TPIA's sell internet bandwidth to consumers and make a profit, why can't the major players sell their product to consumers at less cost than the TPIA's charge?

Something doesn't seem right.

 

[JamesK]

You guys must work for Rogers.

The closest I've been to being a Rogers employee was back when I worked for Unitel and they were a major (45%?) owner. I have also done some work for them over the years through other employers. That said, my Internet connection with them is excellent. I pay for 75/10 Mb and almost always get low 90s download and about 11 up. The service is rock solid. Rogers also provides IPv6. They also have a host name for my connection, based on MAC addresses, so it doesn't change unless I change hardware. This means I don't need a dynDNS service to reach my home network on IPv4 and with my pretty much static IPv6 addresses, regular DNS works fine.

So yes, Rogers Internet service works very well. My bill for Internet is $70.99/month + tax.

 

[ExDilbert]

There is a lot less difference in price between TPIAs and Rogers now than there was a couple of years ago. The big savings with TPIAs is with slower speed plans that Rogers no longer offers. Rogers plans start at 75Mbps. TPIAs offer plans starting at 30Mbps and sometimes slower. After moving to 75Mbps, I wouldn't want to be on a slower speed plan and the price difference between TSI and Rogers is quite small at that level.

Part of the issue was that the CRTC set wholesale prices as a percentage of retail rates. The response by the incumbents was to raise retail prices in order to keep wholesale prices high. Then they would offer promotions to new customers and discounts to existing customers who asked. I had a 30Mbps plan from Rogers that was several dollars cheaper than what TSI or any other TPIA was offering. The price was locked in for several years and they even bumped the speed while I was on the discounted plan. The new cost based wholesale rates are a significant improvement for consumers over the former retail price based wholesale rates.

The other difference with TPIAs is getting support. I found that there were far more issues with cable internet on TSI and their support and billing was substandard compared to Rogers. Some of the things they did were probably illegal and even made Bell look good in comparison. I have no such issues with Rogers.

 

[57]

You guys must work for Rogers.

I wasn't talking about relative pricing between ISPs. Each has advantages and disadvantages. What I did say was that ISP pricing has been dropping for years so to get a lower price (for the same speed) is quite typical. The issue has been that people seem to always want more, even when they don't need it. Many people subscribe to Gigabit service when they only require 1/10 of that... I also have the Rogers 75/10/Unlimited service as part of my bundle and typically get 95/11. As part of my Rogers bundle the pricing is lower any any other ISP.

 

[Gentleman]

As part of my Rogers bundle the pricing is lower any any other ISP.

Ah, there is the issue.

Where I reside, I don't need cable television as I receive over 40 channels OTA on a regular basis. Our cell phones (couples plan) are through CARP - Zoomerwireless at prices I couldn't match elsewhere and our home phone is voip.ms.

Combine this with the fact that I own my cable modem, something Rogers will not permit and I believe I'm infinitely ahead of the game cost wise.

With respect of reliability of TSI internet or other TPIA's, does it not use the same infrastructure as Rogers, right up to the last mile? With Rogers having class A addresses and subnetting out to the TPIA's?

As a side note, when we first migrated to TSI, we had unexplained outages of short duration for the first 12 or so months. The outages were not long enough to be effectively troubleshot. Tickets were created, and mysteriously no issue was ever found. Now that we been with TSI for 9+ years, those outages have completely disappeared. The only issue we've had of late was when all cable TPIA's in Ontario went down a few months ago.

Unless we get FTTN or FTTH in our area, I'll stick with TSI.

 

[Gentleman]

Current pricing schedule:

On the 150/15 plan unlimited.

Rogers w/o bundling $89.99 /month plus taxes
TSI $62.95 /month plus taxes. <- this is the regular price after the 6 month deal listed below.

"Receive a $35 discount for 6 months and conclude the summer with some sizzlin’ savings. Pay $0 for your Wi-Fi enabled CGN-3 modem, $0 for activation, and $0 for shipping! Deals like this won’t stick around for long. Limited time offer, ends September 17."

The first six months the 150/15 plan is only $27.95/month with TSI and no contract or commitments.

 

[ExDilbert]

As a side note, when we first migrated to TSI, we had unexplained outages of short duration for the first 12 or so months.

That's what happened here. The outages lasted up to 1+1/2 days with NO credits and NO resolution. They also wouldn't upgrade or replace the router which was still under warranty and required a firmware update. Every time the internet went out it would take 3 days to get a tech out and by that time they couldn't find the issue. I think the issue was with TSI's local equipment and there were other issues like delays upgrading TSI's equipment which caused more outages. To top it off, TSI overbilled my credit card for 3 months service I never received and refused to refund the money so I was stuck with their lousy service and support for an extra 3 months. By the time it was over I was also out the cost of a new router because they refused to honour the warranty on the one they sold. I switched to Rogers and it was rock solid from day one.

 

[ExDilbert]

TSI $62.95 /month plus taxes. <- this is the regular price after the 6 month deal listed below.

That must be a rate reduction. Last time I compared rates they were within $10 of Rogers price and the modem was extra. That Summer special is squarely aimed at students. The problem is that TSI takes on too much new business in September and it affects system reliability and support. That contributed significantly to the issues I had. Their internet was fine during the Summer but at the beginning of September it went south. That was very bad planning on their part.

 

[gdkitty]

I think it has to do with the recent wholesale forced reductions, a few of them are doping their prices to pass the savings along to the customer.


While I understand the 'savings' potentially with the outright buying of the modem.
With the changes of the technology lately.. this can stick you with an older modem which may not match with some of the more current offerings.
IE: since DOCSIS 3 came out, they went up from 4 channel, all the way up to 32+channel models. Yeah, speed wise all of the modems should be able to get the same speeds.. but the chances of congestion lessen and lessen with each newer one with more channels. With DOCSIS 3.1 now slowly starting to be rolled out.. again new modem needed.
This may only effect people who really want more decent, newer speeds.

 

[ExDilbert]

Slightly older modems may be a better purchase because they tend to be more stable. My problem was with a relatively new modem. The firmware was upgraded just after I purchased it but, unlike Rogers, TSI has no way to push updates to the modems they sell and they won't upgrade the firmware either. Customers are stuck with potentially buggy firmware, the cost of a new modem or the cost of paying someone else to upgrade it. (The upgrade required special equipment.) In my case, that would have cost about $60 with shipping even though the modem was less than a year old and still under warranty. I also would have been totally without internet service while that was taking place. I settled on buying a new modem. TSI took two days to ship the modem. Meanwhile, someone hacked TSI, stole my credit card info and made a $400 charge. It was a bad experience all around.

 

[Gentleman]

With the changes of the technology lately.. this can stick you with an older modem which may not match with some of the more current offerings.

This is too funny. No offence, but when we were with Rogers, we were stuck with a clunky Motorola Surfboard SB5101 for 9 years. I'm sure we paid for that modem 4 times over what it cost and we saw no improvement in service given speed increases.

I think if you are with an ISP and you rent your modem from them, it should be in the contract that you get a new upgraded modem automatically every 3 years at the outset. The ISP's pay a fraction of what you or I would pay for a modem, and like renting your water heater, it is one of the biggest scams going.

 

[Gentleman]

That must be a rate reduction. Last time I compared rates they were within $10 of Rogers price and the modem was extra.

Actually, that pricing difference has existed for some time.

That Summer special is squarely aimed at students. The problem is that TSI takes on too much new business in September and it affects system reliability and support. That contributed significantly to the issues I had. Their internet was fine during the Summer but at the beginning of September it went south. That was very bad planning on their part.

By that logic, students signing up en mass to Rogers would not affect Rogers system reliability and support? I don't buy it.

No offense ExDilbert, but I think your situation is simply a case of sour grapes. In all fairness, I would likely have felt the same given what happened to you. That wasn't right.

 

[ExDilbert]

TSI made some serious errors while I was a cable internet customer. They definitely took on too many new customers and it affected service and support significantly. They were not prepared to service or support the huge influx of new customers that September but they signed them up anyway. It was so bad that Rocky (the owner and CEO) resigned shortly after.

When I signed up with TSI originally, Rocky would often answer the phone to provide customer support (they only had three employees that answered phones.) I was a satisfied customer for ten years. That changed when they rolled out cable internet. It's not sour grapes. It's a feeling of being cheated and betrayed by TSI's greed and bad planning. It's been years since that happened and TSI has adapted to the growth they experienced. That may be good for new customers doesn't help me with the terrible service and unwanted expense that I experienced.

As for Rogers, I've seen times when they had trouble servicing new or existing customers. When I signed up for TSI it took them two months to install new cable to the house since the existing one had been damaged. I've also seen them take a week to send out a service tech. That has improved so I can only assume that they had similar issues to TSI at about the same time. One time they ran out of modems and I couldn't get a replacement for one that failed.