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So, I'm a Shaw customer who just woke up to their bullshit plan of charging for overages as everyone has been discussing. I've been a customer for over 10 years and it's baffling to me why they'd want to shoot themselves in the foot so badly. My area has the Telus Optik and it seems like I can get highspeed + some channels for about the same cost as highspeed alone from shaw (~$60) so I think I'll get signed up with them.
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Jan 11, 2011 04:41
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 06:17 |
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Yeah perhaps it isn't so much Shaw shooting themselves in the foot, but I know there will be a few stories on how average use family gets slammed for a big bill because a bunch of people are watching netflix or downloading rental movies from iTunes.. The 60GB limit wouldn't take that much for a family of 4 to get through. Plus people just really don't want to have to worry about internet usage, especially now that content is getting more and more demanding from a bandwidth perspective. That Telus bundle deal sounds pretty interesting, though. Do you need to get the home phone too?
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Jan 11, 2011 05:49
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Does the shaw internet usage button show up when you exceed your monthly quota automatically or does someone need to actually flag your account? I don't see one on my account despite using a lot of netflix and the occasional torrent. Doesn't seem like the airport extreme has a usage tracker like the wrt54g did with the dd-wrt firmware unfortunately.
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Jan 12, 2011 20:59
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So I just signed up for the Telus Optik High Speed + TV bundle, free PVR rental and XBOX 360. Since I'm paying $57 a month now to shaw for their xtreme-I (15Mbit) paying telus $60 for their 15Mbit and their basic cable seems like a bit of a no brainer. Hope it doesn't suck! It'll be neat to use a set top box with somewhat modern looking menus and useful features for a change, though.
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Jan 17, 2011 22:08
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Sprawl posted:The set top box has a much better interfaces then shaws. the only thing is dont set too many shows to record in prime internet using time or you get sub dsl speeds when doing stuff. Yah, I've heard the internet does take a hit when watching stuff. The TV channels are just a bonus really, we've been living without cable for a couple years now (thanks to shaw's ridiculous pricing and crappy service) so it'll be interesting to see what the watching patterns end up like. I'm mostly keen on it to get hockey again, I'm in a signal shadow so can't get CBCHD OTA worth a drat. Might add the sports pack on too. They don't have Turbo in my area yet (Coquitlam) but that's something I'd be interested in upgrading to when it becomes available.
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Jan 17, 2011 22:57
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I guess Telus is super busy or something, because I still haven't gotten a call to schedule my switch over to Optik (signed up on the 17th online).  I called on saturday but was on hold for about 20 minutes and just hung up.
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Jan 24, 2011 20:05
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So I heard that on the Telus Optik, while they do have the quotas they don't really enforce them because the TV stuff all comes across as data too. Do they not have the ability to determine what packets are data and what are for the tv? I would think that would be fairly trivial..
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Jan 25, 2011 20:20
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less than three posted:Yeah, they can tell the difference. Figures.. I wouldn't be surprised if Telus implements the overage/UBB stuff either. I'm mostly switching just because it's a better deal on a cost per month basis, especially with the $15 per service for the first year. Even for $60 after for the basic tv + high speed optik it's about the same for what I'm paying for shaw's xtreme-I now ($57).
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Jan 25, 2011 20:35
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less than three posted:Oh yay, look what's turned up on my Shaw account: Doesn't look like I have it, is it a line under the "My Shaw Internet Services" heading? (Also GVRD)
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Jan 26, 2011 00:00
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Yep, definitely not there. I'm not a lightweight user either with netflix and such.
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Jan 26, 2011 00:21
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I'm in Coquitlam too and just checked again, nada.
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Jan 26, 2011 00:37
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Shumagorath posted:I'm hoping Netflix, Sony, Microsoft, Apple, hell even a few porn sites, basically anyone who provides content will decide to sue for being rendered uncompetitive in the face of the large ISP's own unlimited content. This is a great idea and I hope it gets some traction. What we really need is a domestic digital content provider that is getting screwed by these caps, but I can't think of any right now. Anyone? These would probably do double damage to the ISPs, their "canadian-ness" is something they could potentially whine about with all the evil foreign content providers breathing down their necks. Also having the Brazzers CEO appear before a commons committee would be pretty awesome.
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Jan 26, 2011 02:27
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Good lord those caps are absolutely worthless. Even a single person who watches a lot of netflix will be flirting with disaster on a monthly basis. What a goddamn shitshow. Race to the bottom!
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Jan 26, 2011 17:56
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That wireless mesh-net type thing is sounding better already. Add in some kind of distributed caching for steam install files and whatnot and hey! I wonder if there is a financial opportunity here if one was to make boxes that would just easily plug in and distribute network load. Probably not, you'd only get a group of hardcore dudes doing it anyway and they'd be all "I can make this myself for less *snort*".
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Jan 26, 2011 19:27
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The Gunslinger posted:The trouble with wireless is always latency and reliability. It's fine for the Facebook types but any kind of wireless mesh thing on a wide spread would need some serious coordination, failover planning and a billion other things I am forgetting. Yah I wouldn't want to be relying on that for gaming or even video streaming, but for something non-time sensitive like bittorrent or steam downloading it'd be alright. It would be a non-trivial thing to figure out all the gotchas though, for sure. Still kind of a nifty idea though! Do you think if people would email Netflix about the concerns if that helps their case if they bring this up to the CRTC? If they can even do that, anyway. I don't know if they have any recourse outside of perhaps an anticompetitive lawsuit. priznat fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Jan 26, 2011 |
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Jan 26, 2011 19:34
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The Gunslinger posted:Netflix copped out already with some lame PR thing about trusting the user consumption to force ISPs to deal with the issue. We will have to browbeat our politicians into changing this or basically wait a few generations for a less TV reliant, tech-aware public to get sick of being ripped off. Yeah, definitely in addition to contacting MPs etc I was thinking. Like if I emailed netflix saying "I'm afraid I have to cancel the service because x's usage caps would make it too expensive" if they would start actually lobbying or whatever. Going to write my MP tonight I think.
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Jan 26, 2011 19:42
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Powershift posted:Netflix doesn't have a leg to stand on as far as the CRTC goes. They're competing with the big media companies' Yeah I figured, much like Apple etc.. I mentioned it earlier in the thread, a Canadian digital media content provider would be a nice ally but it doesn't seem like we actually have any of those  vvv so true. Probably more than Global or CTV! priznat fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jan 26, 2011 |
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Jan 26, 2011 19:47
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patriotic canadian video on demand services
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Saw this today: http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2011/01/26/InternetLosers/ Yep
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Jan 26, 2011 21:35
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I think something can be said about an oligopoly charging a huge multiple (5,000x mentioned earlier?) of the cost to them per gigabyte. The internet as it is evolving is simply not set up now to be constrained under such tight limits, and imagine what it will be like in 3-5 years time. People have seen the future and it is on-demand video from a multitude of sources and not their bare-basics cable provider.
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Jan 27, 2011 20:25
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Saw this article just now, Netflix is rating the ISPs with charts to show who is giving the best throughput: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/canada-comes-out-on-top-as-netflix-rates-north-american-isps.ars Shaw/Rogers do quite well. Wonder how long that'll be the case?
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Jan 27, 2011 21:24
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I think it's actually a plot by zip.ca to keep their lovely mailed DVD subscriptions viable.
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Jan 27, 2011 23:52
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teethgrinder posted:What makes it lovely? We were about to subscribe as a result. My friends who've used it loved it. I subscribed to it and could never get the movies I wanted. I had a lot of "well, I guess I could watch this sometime" movies wayyyyyy down in the list and those would always be the ones I got. So I removed all of those and then would end up getting nothing at all. This was when it first started up though so perhaps it's better now. It just seems like such an outdated way to do things, though. Digital distribution is better in every way and to think the ISPs could charge you more to stream a movie than the post office would charge zip.ca to ship a DVD across the frigging zone serviced by their distribution centre should make everyone even madder.
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Jan 28, 2011 00:42
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Thankfully due to Telus not following up on my web sign up they announce their bullshit before I've even switched over (not that I wasn't expecting it anyway).
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Jan 28, 2011 02:34
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Is there anyplace with info/details on how much the gov't has subsidized the building of the internet infrastructure the big providers are using? It would be a nice card to pull out to use against the "IT'S A PRIVATE BUSINESS THEY CAN CHARGE WHATEVER THEY WANT HURR HURR" folks, if it is the case.
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Jan 28, 2011 03:47
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I demand a refund for the bandwidth I spent to load up that lovely opinion piece.
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Jan 28, 2011 05:59
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Has Telus announced any of their overage costs and if they're lowering their caps? I was planning on switching to Optik before all this happened (from Shaw) but I dunno if my online application got lost in the mad stampede. If the caps/overages are on the same level of shittiness as shaw's I might as well switch because Telus will be cheaper per month.
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Jan 31, 2011 20:59
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Yeah I was aware that Telus was planning on putting the overages in I was asking if there was an announcement on the costs per GB and/or if the caps are dropping.
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Jan 31, 2011 21:27
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less than three posted:http://www.telus.com/content/internet/highspeed/compare.jsp Blurrrrgh. Well at least it isn't worse I guess. It kind of sucks that Turbo isn't available in my `hood (Coquitlam). Thanks! Also, why is "online multiplayer gaming" not checked for the regular optik? Is the latency pretty bad?
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Jan 31, 2011 21:53
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I re-read that Vancouver sun commentary again just to make myself mad. The fact that in some people's minds bandwidth is similar to shipping a package across the country is pretty amazing. All I've learned for certain is that people are terrible at analogies.
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Jan 31, 2011 23:47
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My MP is an NDPer so I feel like I don't need to do anything, they got it in hand  Finally something those filthy hippies are good fer!  Anyone got a link for the GB discussion on this handy? I had a look at the front page and none of the clever thread titles jumped out at me as obvious but perhaps it has shuffled off a couple pages deep..
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Feb 1, 2011 20:18
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"Public Mobile: lovely, but Canadian!"
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Feb 4, 2011 22:13
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It seems to me that anyone wanting to start a domestic company will have a really tough time because for one the population base is not all that high and for another you'd be getting hosed over by the big incumbents constantly. And regarding foreign companies I remember reading somewhere that Amazon is having a real tough time satisfying requirements to manage to service Canadian customers and Canada was the only major country without an Amazon fulfillment centre. I think they may be building one now though.
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Feb 4, 2011 22:23
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Martytoof posted:I thought Amazon had a fulfilment centre out in north Toronto somewhere? Guess I'm wrong You're correct, they have a warehouse but iirc it was stuff gets cleared across the border and goes through that location, it wasn't a true fulfillment centre per se. edit: found a link on it http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-amazon-teapot-could-be-brewing-a-tempest/article1537121/ quote:After all, for the last six years, Seattle-based Amazon.com has been operating in Canada as Amazon.ca, fulfilling orders from a warehouse in Mississauga west of Toronto owned by SCI Group, an entity 98.34 per cent owned by Canada Post.  I think it meant they were a lot more limited on what they could stock or something like that, anyway it was foreign ownership things that kept them out.
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Feb 4, 2011 22:33
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Now that I think about it, I wonder if the amazon fulfillment centre is running now. Perhaps that is why they switched from canada post to UPS for shipping packages? Hate UPS, bring back canada post (never thought I'd say that)
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Feb 4, 2011 22:37
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jizzpowered posted:They still do sometimes, I got a few packages from Amazon from Canada Post. Ok, interesting! Wonder what the difference is. In any case I really wish for amazon.ca to have as many different depts as the .com version. That'd be pretty frigging cool. We can let Wal-Mart and Target in but not Amazon? Wtf.
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Feb 4, 2011 22:42
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Yeah pretty much all of my interactions with UPS have been annoying and frustrating ("oh we tried to deliver it but no one was there" when I stayed home the whole day and the driver obviously is lying.. Or refusing to leave a package on a step or tucked behind the house and the pickup location is way the gently caress down in Delta or whatever). Whereas Canada Post I have a couple post offices nearby, both of which are open til 9-10pm so it's easy for a pickup after work. I even had Canada Post attempt a delivery on a Sunday before xmas which was completely amazing. Speed wise I don't notice much difference between UPS or CP. The exception is when I order something from the US amazon and it forces me to do the $20 expedited, that is amazingly fast shipping. (via UPS). But for DVDs/Games/Books from amazon.ca it's never a time crunch so I prefer the ease of actually getting the delivery of Canada Post  On topic, I got a call back from Telus from my internet sign up, they were all ready to schedule an appointment for me but I threw a wrench in the process by asking if instead of the free xbox promo if I could get the $15/service/month for the year instead. They will have to figure this out or something and call me back  . Ah well glad I'm not in a rush!
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Feb 5, 2011 19:28
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less than three posted:Just placed my order for Internet to switch to Telus. Ugh I got a call back from Telus last week for my online sign-up, and I said I wanted the $15 promo. They said they'd figure it out and call me back but they haven't, what the hell.
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Feb 8, 2011 00:50
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less than three posted:Call 1-877-495-8508. Cool, what time are they open til? I'd prefer to do it when I get home from work if possible but otherwise I can sneak off to a conference room or something.
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Feb 8, 2011 00:54
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less than three posted:I have no idea. Just try calling I guess? Okay, okay!  It's odd how I have issues about calling places from my work but can catch up on forums and whatnot with no problem! PRODUCTIVITY!
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Feb 8, 2011 01:19
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 06:17 |
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Yah and being in a cube farm phone calls are public information.. Anyway I went out to the lobby to make my call and it's all set, they even can come out on a saturday to do the hookup! A female friend of mine recently got hers hooked up in north van and the installer picked her up. Full service indeed 
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Feb 8, 2011 01:48
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