I just received this email today from Start. Great ISP, now I like them even better!
QuoteDear Jason Wallwork,
Re: Internet service with Start (Account #XXXXXXXX)
We're happy to let you know that your current internet plan has been improved.
Effective February 1, 2017, your speed will increase from 30 Mbps download to 40 Mbps download with 10 Mbps upload at no additional cost. As well, your download limit will increase from 300 GB to unlimited usage.
You can sit back and relax as this change will happen automatically on your next bill.
We have updated almost all of our internet service plans, so if you're looking for more speed please check out www.start.ca to see whats available!
Please note that our service desk may be busier than normal due to the number of customers being updated, so we appreciate your patience if you have any questions about this change. You can also visit our frequently asked questions page, which will be updated as needed over the next few weeks. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates or more information.
Thanks for being with Start.ca, we always appreciate your business.
Sincerely,
Service Desk
519-434-5888 / 1-866-434-5888
Start.ca
In case you're wondering, I pay $62.15 a month including taxes.
Nice!
Hopefully they don't pull the old Cogeco trick, where they announce a service improvement and then a few months later also announce an increase in the Rates.
Well, the email says "at no additional cost" so I don't think they're going to raise the rate a few months later. And to be honest, they've done this before, though it was right around when I signed up so I probably never got the email but my bitcap jumped up and I believe my speed did, too. Bob was with Start before me so he'd probably remember. Unlike Cogeco, Start actually wants to keep their customers, I think :)
That's pretty good. Here, comparable 30Mbps/5Mbps and Unlimited usage is $79.04 (including tax).
I'd be surprised if Start.ca wasn't available to you where you are, William. I know their rates change dependent on who the 'incumbent' is - ie. I & Jason pay based on Cogeco controlling Peterborough's market; I assume Rogers does Mister- and Mississauga.... Numbers might be different, but presumably equivalent value. 40/10 here, 49.95/mo. plus tax (Jason, you can buy out your DCM476 and reduce your price, should you wish - I did); 50/10 there, for example, 59.95/mo. (probably a little higher - I didn't bother with the real math, but you get the idea)...
And I'd like to think that, like Teksavvy with my VoIP, they're just happy the payments keep a'rolling on in... Bumping us up a notch and eradicating bandwidth caps keeps us in the same game as the new toys that just keep on rolling out (I just found out my sister in Toronto has symmetric 50 Mbps service, with Bell, I believe; Fibe'ish?) Unlike Wind Mobile, who I maintain has f!!ked its customer base with the new AWS3 band and the rollout of LTE service to its customers... What a G-D clusterf!!k. And I'm only gonna say this once - DON'T GET ME STARTED ON Wind (now Freedom) Mobile...!!
Checked my speed. See attachment:
Nice! Who are you with that gives you 55 Mbps up, Harry? Is it Bell?
And how much are you paying for it and what's your bitcap?
My price is sort of unknown because we have a package that includes phone, tv and fib with Bell. I do know it's cheaper than when I had dsl and Cogeco and phone before. And I don't worry too much about it after I go through the bills for my house insurance, car insurance, rv insurance, house taxes, electric bill, extra health insurance for travel and special medications, food bills, car payments, lcbo bills, etc, etc.
I think we have 165 gig for downloads. Quite ample.
Ah, you're lucky to get that speed with Bell. Here, meaning where I live, they still have only 5 Mbps max., if you can believe that.
How much does the bundle cost?
I second that, Jason. What was available to me from Bell was only slightly better: 10/1. That's why I switched to Cogeco (4x for the same price). And now that I have internet service coming in through cable, I am free to switch to any ISP provider I want.
Not as fast as Harry, but faster than Start promised and before February :)
(https://plugintolinux.ca/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.speedtest.net%2Fresult%2F5996997784.png&hash=ae662355ea1a02492b21ff4fab89701c8910b5f4) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5996997784)
Apparently, not only did Start.ca up the speed shortly after the announcement, they also stopped counting bandwidth usage, so the unlimited usage started early. I love Start!!! Seel my screenshot below of my usage for January to date.
If they do start charging more within 6 months, I'll let you guys know. In the meanwhile, to see if Start is available in your area and at what speeds/costs, check:
https://www.start.ca/
Wow do you ever download a lot of stuff :)
Quote from: fox on January 30, 2017, 04:10:09 PM
Wow do you ever download a lot of stuff :)
Can always count on you to find a criticism that misses the point even if it's a valid one. :)
We do but we also don't have cable so that includes lots of Netflix (HD tv shows and movies) and YouTube watching and listening to Spotify and online news streaming. And when I download movies I download them in HD so it adds up. And that's for BOTH of us. My wife listens to CBC radio all day long, too and makes an income from being an online designer. It's a 3D world, so lots of HD textures and such. The 29th had a lot of downloading in particular, as I reformatted my desktop so had to re-download my data on Google Drive (about 35+ GB).
If we counted how much your wife probably watches over cable, it'd probably add up, too. Everything is bits now :)
The part in green is the downloading that is part of the unlimited, which from the 9th is all of it.
Not a crit; just a comment. I'm sure I could have made the same comment about any of you who come to PLUG MUG, and probably most PLUG members. I'm sure I'm the outlier here; just about all of our downloading is system updates, email attachments and the like, not media.
I know you were just poking fun at me. I was just poking fun back at ya :) And yeah, I think Bob blows all of us away for downloading.
And you are getting media though I suppose it's not considered downloading. All TV shows are delivered via digital bits now. Bits, the same kind of bits that come with your Internet service. They just don't count it. Do you see what I mean? That's assuming your wife watches TV. I know you don't watch much.
This thread popped up at just the right time. I have been contemplating who I want to get service from.
Jason, I saw your post earlier Re: Bell, I am surprised you can't get their Fibe service now. I know they lit up most of the south end this past summer. We have had the door knockers constantly the past 2 months. I was just about to sign up for either their 300/100 {Down/Up} {$104/month) or 1000/100Mb {$149/month) service. Both are Unlimited, no contract.
However, the prices changes you mentioned Re: Start.Ca have won me over. I think $50/month for 40/10 will be far easier on the pocket book. I wish I downloaded enough to justify the Bell Fibe service, as comparably it is a great deal. That and I will always have a sour taste for Bell. :)
Bob, I hate to throw coal on the fire but I am very interested in your experience with Wind/Freedom. Until your post I had planned on switching to them from Rogers, they currently have a $55 Unlimited NA, 8GB Full Speed plan that peaked my interest, especially as it included 2400 minutes and 1GB data when used outside of their zone including the US. Any comments, however painful, would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, and hey guys! I wish I could make it out Mondays, I miss you guys. At the very least I frequently lurk here.
Good hearing from you again, Scott!
I'll let Bob answer most of your questions about Freedom Mobile but have to let you know Bob usually does all his posts once a week in a big splurge so you might have a wait.
But I can tell you what Bob has told me and the most important thing is that Freedom Mobile doesn't have 4G/LTE in Peterborough yet. That probably won't happen until the fall. Also, the 3G service is very bad. About 2 Mbps right now. And... you have to get a different phone to use the LTE when it comes because they're using a different band (I think). I just know it's incompatible with most phones.
So great deal bit cap, cheap for voice and texting. But shitty download speeds in Peterborough (for now). If you get one of their new phones they're selling now, it will be ready for LTE when it comes. And I think it's dual sim so you can also use it on other LTE networks should you leave them.
I'll let Bob know tonight at the meeting that you posted and hopefully, he'll remember to respond to you.
And he did, thanks, Jason! <^8# OK, here goes...
I *loved* the "unlimited" 10GB/mo. plan WIND Mobile had when I decided to change over. And I missed it! (First piss-off!) Had I signed up the first time I attended their kiosk at Lansdowne Place, *that's* what I would've had (I recollect this very clearly because it was definitely an improvement over my 6GB/mo. plan with Telus at the time.) But I had to get my Samsung Galaxy Note II "WIND-unlocked" first (apparently, Telus [et al, I'm sure!] didn't enable the AWS-1 frequencies on phones they sold - BIG surprise, eh?! NOT! And my wife's S III won't do it at all...)
So... for $39./mo., you get "unlimited", and I can say, unequivocally, that it IS unlimited. With a catch, naturally. The first 3GB on this plan are at "full speed", which I construed to mean "high speed", ie. LTE. Frickin' WRONG! Their service is 3G only (second piss-off!), further obfuscated by the fact that my phone, which previously said LTE, now said 4G. Evidently, it doesn't HAVE a 3G to display.
SO... You *know* I monitored developments re. WIND's LTE deployment closely. With my 6GB data plan with Telus, I was downloading @ ~30Mbps sitting in Timmy's. If I needed to download a distro, eg., I just fire up my hotspot and roll - it's either that or Timmy's 640Mbps "barn-burner" offering (and I hasten to point out, we've yet to find an IP address there that would give us real options to date). Post-move to WIND? 3Mbps at best, which I initially thought was just cell tower coverage Telus vs. WIND, until I cleared up the whole "full" vs. "high" thing in my head...
Now, during this time, Rogers bought out Videotron, who had the sole license to AWS-3, a previously-undeployed spectrum. IIRC, part of the deal was divesting themselves of AWS-3, which Rogers et al would never use anyway. So...
WIND mobile bought that spectrum as well. And the minute they did, I *knew* this would not bode well for WIND's existing customers. And I was absolutely right (third piss-off!)!
I'd been awaiting word on how quickly WIND intended to bring up their network to LTE - on the AWS-1 spectrum, naturally, where their entire customer base was deployed. And suddenly I *knew* every friggin' customer would have to go out and buy a new phone, capable of AWS-3 (heretofore unmanufactured) to get LTE. And I was RIGHT - kinda. I had no idea of the clusterf!ck in store...
First, enter FREEDOM mobile. Now, you *KNOW* that when your company changes names, it's gonna change ALL the rules; I've never seen it not (cynical SoB, ain't I?! <^8#)(I've lost count of the piss-offs!)
In a nutshell, if you want LTE, it'll cost you $5./mo. more. But that's 'WAY too easy to be the end of the story...
Let's begin with a carrot on a stick; if you upgrade to LTE now, for the extra $5., you'll get DOUBLE the data, 6GB/mo. instead of 3GB. Big deal - you can do that ANYWAY with a (booster? - I can't recollect just now exactly what WIND called them, but you get the idea...) AND PAYING THE $5. RIGHT NOW WILL GET YOU ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in terms of service improvement - still no LTE (focusing on Peterborough right now, but play along...) *AND*... This will only remain in place for about 6 months or so, IIRC... or perhaps until deployment reaches your area...
There are 3 deployment windows planned - immediate, summer'ish 2017, and late 2017. The first deployment will see LTE *on AWS-3* in metropolitan areas - Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Windsor, I believe... SO, $5./mo. more, AND BUYING A NEW PHONE to get it! And if you come to outlying areas like Peterborough, you get 3G - for your extra $5./mo., on your shiny new phone!! (Another piss-off...)
Great deal... NOT!!
Second deployment probably sees the 905'ish... definitely NOT Peterborough... Peterborough isn't upgraded to LTE until late 2017, or however far that gets pushed back. BIGGER STUPIDITY - they're deploying LTE - when it gets here - on the *AWS-1* spectrum!! SO, if I wait long enough, I can have LTE on my phone for the extra $5./mo. if I want to wait that long. AND IF I GO INTO TORONTO THEN, I believe I *STILL* won't have LTE on my phone - FOR THE EXTRA $5./mo. - STILL without buying a new phone!!
WHAT a dog's breakfast...!! And all of the new FREEDOM mobile marketing claptrap thanks their existing, "LOYAL" customer base for being so committed to changing the face of cellular in Canada today!
And BOY, do I feel HOSED!
Your mileage may vary, hope this helps! Feel free to point out mistakes in my understanding of the situation, but I thank Mike at this point for the nod to Koodo for their $15./mo. unlimited texting service you can add 500 minutes to for $25., and 1 GB data for $30., both of which never expire, so for about $70. (including the SIM card) you can have it all without fear of loss. Man, I'd better get signed up there before they change that next! <^8#