Internet 'Usage Based Billing' on the way - TekSavvy as alternative?

Started by Kithop, January 14, 2011, 01:23:38 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Masozi


Selkit wrote - " (I'm actually thinking of filing a marketing complaint if they call me a seventh time in six months to advertise their digital cable and phone services after having been told every single call to remove me from their marketing list). "

My Turn - 7 times in 6 months tells me that you didn't get on their carpet bombing list. . . I kid you not when I tell you that last spring Shaw's telemarketing center called me about 40 or 50 times in 7 weeks.  I have an answering service that clearly states "telemarketing will be ignored"  and yet I got the huge numbers of calls from Shaw. A few after that Telus called me about 30 times in 5 weeks.  In both companies I suspect that there may be some people missing large clumps of hair walking around their call centers because they got frustrated with their constant failures to catch me in their annoyance traps.
*Yoda voice*   Gone is the hyena you once knew. . .changed to Masozi he has. . .with it deal.  *end Yoda voice*

Kithop

Quote from: Thaeus on January 14, 2011, 09:35:35 PM
*pops head in*  Yarr!

Switching to Teksavvy has been on my to-do list since I started hearing about UBB last fall.  The thing that scares me is that I'll have to get the dry-loop service, and I have no idea how much they'll charge me for whatever "band" I end up having.  But my current cap with Shaw is just 60 GB, and I blow through that much bandwidth easily.

I should give them a call tomorrow.

I have their dry loop service. Band rate for me is the $12.odd one; once I'm home I'll post a breakdown pf my invoice for ya. *wants moar referals* XD

Kithop

Quote from: Kithop on January 15, 2011, 01:06:07 AM
Quote from: Thaeus on January 14, 2011, 09:35:35 PM
*pops head in*  Yarr!

Switching to Teksavvy has been on my to-do list since I started hearing about UBB last fall.  The thing that scares me is that I'll have to get the dry-loop service, and I have no idea how much they'll charge me for whatever "band" I end up having.  But my current cap with Shaw is just 60 GB, and I blow through that much bandwidth easily.

I should give them a call tomorrow.

I have their dry loop service. Band rate for me is the $12.odd one; once I'm home I'll post a breakdown pf my invoice for ya. *wants moar referals* XD

Okay - I went for pretty much the fully-loaded package - fastest speed, unlimited bandwidth and static IP.  You prepay for your first month of service as well.  Here's how my first month broke down:

TELUS-BC-RES-NRC $39.99  <- One-time activation fee
TELUS - Static IP BC $4.00
TELUS - Unlimited Bandwidth BC $10.00
TELUS-RES-DSL2-6M BC $35.95
TELUS-BC-BAND C $12.66 <- this is the band rate for my place in Surrey; New West is apparently about $1 cheaper.  You'd have to call to find out your area for sure.
Speedtouch 516 DSL Modem $75.00 <- this is just a simple one-port modem I have in bridged mode in front of a router; you can get others with multiple ports or rent-to-own this; I bought it up front
Shipping for the modem $10.00

Total $187.60 + GST ($9.38) = $196.98 on my credit card.

My monthly fee going forward after this will be $35.95 + $12.66 + $10.00 + $4.00 = $62.61 + tax.  Bit more expensive than what I was paying Shaw (about $55 after taxes), but the static IP includes some basic newsgroups (1Mbit/s rate limit, around 100 day retention I think), and the unlimited bandwidth option is totally worth it. :P


Silvermink

Thought this might be useful to people - a friend of mine found a little spreadsheet from digitalhome.ca with the prices, speeds, caps, and overage charges (as of January 10th) of the major carriers' residential plans: http://silvermink.net/ISP_Plans.xls

Kithop

Quote from: Silvermink on January 15, 2011, 11:09:25 AM
Thought this might be useful to people - a friend of mine found a little spreadsheet from digitalhome.ca with the prices, speeds, caps, and overage charges (as of January 10th) of the major carriers' residential plans: http://silvermink.net/ISP_Plans.xls

That looks a little off/out of date, though, for Shaw - their site says they're charging $2/GB for their regular High-Speed offering, and it's only $1/GB if you go even faster on 'Extreme' (the 15Mbit down one).  Even so, good info to know!

Silvermink

Quote from: Kithop on January 15, 2011, 11:12:57 AM
That looks a little off/out of date, though, for Shaw - their site says they're charging $2/GB for their regular High-Speed offering, and it's only $1/GB if you go even faster on 'Extreme' (the 15Mbit down one).  Even so, good info to know!

Yeah, I haven't corroborated any of it, so take anything there with a grain of salt.

Kell

Well, Telus has started doing whatever they are going to do.

Just got a call from them today, that our family will be, as of feb. first I think it was, paying for any gigs we use over our limit... I didn't answer the call myself, but it sounds like about what was mentioned above... unbelievable prices if you go over a rather low cap...

With 4 computers plugged into this connection, 2 Ipods and a Xbox 360, most doing something online 24/7, I somehow dout we will stay under our limit... Right now 3 netflix movies are streaming, I'm trying this, somebody is playing COD on the 360 and my ipod is downloading a audio book...

I might have to look into teksavvy asap.

Kithop

Quote from: Kell on January 17, 2011, 05:23:07 PM
I might have to look into teksavvy asap.

So the Feb 1st rumour I heard wasn't far off. :/ Sent you a PM. c.c *more referral whoring*

I don't feel so marketing-whory, though, if this is as serious as I thought it would be when I first found out about this and flipped my shit on Twitter a month or two ago. :/

terutt


Kell

Shaw says we don't see the full picture.

Wrong, we do, we just don't think that the huge, rich companies already charging huge sums for internet, being able to make MORE money, is a good reason.

Think of it this way.

If the average internet using household, with 2 children and 2 parents and say, 3 computer users, 2 computers, and a game system, sucks down, I'd estimate based on those I know, 100-120 gigs a month these days...

And some, gamers, internet-addicts, people that make their livelyhoods online, suck down well over 200 (I know people that use much more than that.) What does this all do?

Lets see here, suddenly Shaw only has to supply those that DO monitor their bandwidth and stay under the new cap, say, 50 gigs a month, half of what they were using (I dout many suburban families will want to spend extra for bandwidth at those rates, they will likely limit themselves rather than spend, just as they would with long-distance). Now shaw is providing them with half the bandwidth, and getting the same ammount of money.

Meanwhile, those of us that are not about to stop what we do online, be it game or make our living, we will suddenly be paying out the ass for bandwidth... And likely, due to the cost, using less.

So, the net change is, shaw uses less bandwidth, and makes MORE money, for doing less, inconveniencing people, when they already turn sizable profits...

Capitalism, it works!

Selkit

Kell;

I had a nice, polite chat with one of their representatives not too long ago, explaining precisely why I will be switching away from Shaw at my earliest convenience, and why I do not simply believe, but know and understand that their "pay per usage" policies upcoming, are a simple cash-gouge. They're charging a 2500-3,000% markup on bandwidth (dependant on bulk rates, of course), providing $8 worth of bandwidth as part of my default package, and expecting that I will simply eat an overage charge for ~100-150 gigabytes (plus any monthly use on top of that) should I have to do a system reinstall at some point (Windows 7 updates are -heavy-, and my software/games, 95% of them are online digital-download purchases; My working software alone is 80 gigabytes plus to download, plus 40 gigabytes for the SVN to redownload, plus a Steam library of ~300 gb). Heaven forbid I should want to watch a Netflix movie at ~6-7 gigabytes per hour for HD content. For the rate I'm paying at a reasonable markup from bulk rates, I should be getting approximately 250 gb per month, allowing Shaw to make an extremely generous 300% markup off their bandwidth. Not a punitive 2500% markup for a third the cap I should have at the rate I pay.

Do not annoy a geek in the know. Especially not a geek who is choosing service to use professionally and currently paying for your second-highest tier of service on his fourth year as a customer. Shaw can take a hike.

Kell

I know the feeling.

As I told the telus rep that called here ages ago about me 'Going over my limit' (they dinged us like 15 bucks the third month in a row it happened then went away, "The day my internet usage means you are NOT making atleast a 100% profit off my using your internet, is the day I'll not phone in and yell at one of your reps every time you charge me overage fees."

These companies don't just turn a little profit, they turn MASSIVE profits, and have a heavy monopoly on a very, very widely used part of todays world. I mean, outside of gas and car insurance, their arn't many monopolies in canada as strong as those held by some ISPs/Telecom companies, and now they don't just want to rape us for our phone, internet, cellphones, AND TV, they want to charge us overage fees just for using them at the normal rate? If I had to pay a little for every gig over say... 500, or something else extravagant like that (For a household user anyway), I'd just sigh and accept it, but if I'm browsing artwork, uploading my photos, browsing photos, watching netflix, or playing a game, I'm going to be sucking down gigs an hour, 50-100 gigs a month is NOT a sensable cap for your average household, or even your above average single user...

If they want to charge us per gig, atleast set the caps at something sane.

Ravenwood

TekSavvy is now offering Cable packages.

http://teksavvy.com/en/res-internet.asp#cable


Service                   Down      Up           Gig Cap          Price
Lite Cable         3 Mbps    256 K       200               $27.95
Express Cable          10 Mbps   512 K       200               $36.95
Extreme Cable         15 Mbps   1 Mbps     200               $42.95
Extreme Cable Pro    15 Mbps   1 Mbps     Unlimited        $54.95

Kithop

...in Ontario, yes, through Rogers. ;) Switch your province in the top right corner (yeah this caught me too). It's just via Telus' DSL last mile out here.

Ravenwood

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25316410-Limited-Greater-Vancouver-Area-Cable-startup

QuoteLimited Greater Vancouver Area Cable startup
Gang,

We are ready to take in some orders for cable in the Greater Vancouver Area but only in limited quantities as we only have a 100Mbit/s link.

If you are interested we will be processing these manually via the direct forum. We will not be sending out notices to all our customers due to the limited deployment. Once we're able to increase the capacity we'll be sending out proper notices.

regards,

Marc
--
TSI Marc - TekSavvy Solutions Inc.