Carry Telecom -- too good to be true?

[William Park]

Lots of people (in Kitchener/Waterloo area) are talking about

    - http://www.carrytel.ca/internet-plans.aspx
    - http://www.carrytel.ca/rfd-special.aspx

Cable 75M/10M for $35 and 250M/20M for $55 are pretty good price.  Maybe too good to be true?  Any comments or rumours?

[Jason]

Never heard of them before but I don't think I heard of Start Communications either until Bob mentioned it. Great prices though I find it weird that they don't have an address lookup to find out what is available at your location. I'm personally suspicious, not that it's a scam, just that they can provide decent service and support at those prices. Not sure I'd want to chance going to them even with free installation because if they turned out be shit, I'd have to pay the installation to come back to Start.

[bobf]

I'd *love* to think that we can all double our speed for almost half the price, but it sounds like every loss-leader I've ever heard of in the past 40 years... You jump over, they double the rates, and go under in the undertow of the mass "abandon ship!"

Who doesn't want twice for half?! <^8# Maybe the first hundred-thousand customers who make the leap get to KEEP their rates for the next 5-10 years... (Suuuurreee!! Sign me up! <^8#) 'Cuz they'll be around for the long haul...?

And then I opened my eyes and realized I would have to throw off the blankets and give up the pillow, and get started on another every-day day... Yep, bona fide cynic - can someone tell me where I pick up my paycheck?! <^8#

[dougal]

I'm wondering if anyone is using Start Communications locally? and if so what's the experience been like?

[Jason]

Other than occasional issues (maybe once or twice a month) with network going down for maybe an hour very late at night (like 3-4 am, no comments please!), never had a problem with Start. I pay for 40 down and 10 up and this is what I get:



Bob has it for sure and I think Bill has it now, as well. They've also increased their speeds and bitcaps over the years (no bitcap with my service now) with no additional charge. There's another thread on Start Communications here:

http://forums.plugintolinux.ca/index.php/topic,134.0.html

If you do sign up, I'd love it if you mentioned my name. They give a $25 referral credit when friends sign up. Regardless though, I'd still recommend them. Same lines as Cogeco/Rogers but cheaper.

[fox]

Do they have tablet data plans?

[Jason]

Do they have tablet data plans?

Both Carry and Start are home internet providers, although Start also has home phone plans. They aren't mobile service providers.

[dougal]

hey Jason et al. i'm typing in my address on start.ca and there saying 'no service available' for that address and consequently not for cameron street either or uptown, so i'm a bit perplexed ...carrytel shows service for my addy. any thots on this?

[Jason]

That seems pretty extremely unlikely (that they don't provide service to a Cameron Street address), seeing as how they're basically a reseller of Cogeco services. Does Cogeco serve your place? Are you in an apartment? I'd give them a call (or email them) if their address search isn't working correctly or not showing your address. Could just be incorrect information in their database.

[dougal]

i'm attached to cogeco now....so i'll follow up with a call to them directly, could be just a software glitch as u suspect.

[Jason]

Yeah, you should have no problem them. And my guess would be that you'd have a maximum of 120 Mbps service like me. I'm also in the south end. So I'm thinking you probably have the same pricing and choices that I do. I'll list them the options so you have some info before you call:

15 Mbps service (2 Mbps up), 200 GB usage, $40
40 Mbps service (10 Mbps up), Unlimited usage $50
60 Mbps service (10 Mbps up), Unlimited usage, $65
120 Mbps service (10 Mbps up), Unlimited usage, $85

$5/month rental for a modem or you can buy one

Also curious, where did you find an address checker on the Carry Telecom site? I couldn't find one and thought it was kind of weird.

[dougal]

thanks Jason
 
Hello Dougal,

I was able to find one other person who actually lives on that street with our services. I am very optimistic that we can get service to your location.....

strange they can't commit at this point.

start.ca email reply has the same options you gave:

-Home Cable 15 for $40 +tax, speeds of 15 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload and 200 GB of usage monthly
-Home Cable 40 for $50 +tax, speeds of 40 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload and unlimited monthly usage
-Home Cable 60 for $65 +tax, speeds of 60 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload and unlimited monthly usage
-Home Cable 120 for $85 +tax, speeds of 120 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload and unlimited monthly usage

If one of these stands out to you we can always book a transfer of service! This will waive the $25 installation fee but it does require that you call Cogeco and schedule a pending disconnection date for at least 10 business days from the day you call them. So if you were to call them today you would schedule the pending disconnection date for January 31st.

they didn't mention anything about modem rental or purchase so far...

here's the page i was on for address search:
https://www.start.ca/services/highspeed


  also looking into this offer by Carrytel: not sure yet if it's available in Ptbo.

https://www.carrytel.ca/index.aspx

this I believe is their regular service offers:

CABLE INTERNET(ONTARIO)
Service Area: Windsor, Sarnia, Essex, Hamilton, Milton, Burlington, Oakville, Belleville, Brockville, Chatham, Cornwall, Kingston, Kingsville, Leamington ,Lindsay, Niarara Falls, Northy Bay, PETERBOROUGH, St. Catherines.

Cable Internet 40
40 Mbps+ download
10 Mbps upload speed
Unlimited data
·Risk free 7-day trial

·No contract

·Installation fee: $0.00

·Modem Purchase: $99

$29 .99/30 days
ORDER NOW

Cable Internet 60
60 Mbps+ download
10 Mbps upload speed
Unlimited data
·Risk free 7-day trial

·No contract

·Installation fee: $0.00

·Modem Purchase: $99

$39 .99/30 days
ORDER NOW

Cable Internet 120
120 Mbps+ download
10 Mbps upload speed
Unlimited data
·Risk free 7-day trial

·No contract

·Installation fee: $0.00

·Modem Purchase: $99

$59 .99/30 days

i'm on the 40/10 unlimited,for $85+tax with cogeco at this point.

does anyone have any stories about CarryTel to share?

[Jason]

You will definitely require a modem, either through rental or buying. Make sure you arrange this before you disconnect as they have to ship you a modem either way. The technician doesn't bring one. Unless they just keep the same modem as Cogeco, but I'd make doubly sure of this if/when you schedule an appointment.

Cogeco charges $85 for 40 Mbps service? That's insane. Or is that some kind of bundle?

[dougal]

   no bundle,insane compared to their 'associate' or resellers offering $50 with start.ca  or $ 29.99 with Carrytel even with the modem cost. I hadn't heard of anyone using these third party ISPs in town until this thread.  I usually only go with that package in the winter to get the unlimited, in the summer i go with 95gb for  $65. so these prices look quite inviting. I've read of people running the new modem  off a splitter to see how they like the service before cancelling cogeco. Still haven't found anything review-wise on Carrytel that's local. I'm guessing none of the Linux group decided to try it... i'm also assuming if I wanted to go back to cogeco after disconnecting they'll want a fee. so a few things yet to gather up before deciding, but i hear that you are happy with your decision. I read how some who are 'piggybacked' with rogers say the techs are really not servicing them well but haven't read that of cogeco. at first i thot that these companies were using their own servers just riding on the infrastructure of the big 3 but it sounds like they are wholesale resellers of the same service, is that what you understand, want to be clear i've got this right.

[Jason]

The resellers still use their own servers for dns, email, etc. but its over the same lines is how I understand it. And they have their own support services. But they (or at least Start) use Cogeco technicians for the installations and I assume anything requiring a technician to come by. I don't think you'll go wrong with Start, but I just don't know anybody that has tried Carry yet. I'm very tempted, I'll tell you that. I asked Start and they wouldn't give me a break when I showed Carry's prices.

You can also tell Cogeco you're considering jumping ship and they will likely cut you a deal, maybe not price match but I'm sure they can give you better than $85 a month. So that's also worth trying, too.