Shaw vs Telus

[Thorin]

We had our Shaw internet hooked up today, and our Telus internet isn't disconnected yet, so I decided to do an actual head-to-head of the two services.

Shaw Broadband 50:


Telus Optik:


Quite the difference, eh?  Same server, done via wireless from laptop to wifi modem, both modems sitting side by side so the distance from laptop to modem is the same.

It's sad that my Telus Optik results are still considered faster than 52% of Canadians.

[Thorin]

Of course, different servers make things different, here's a server right in Edmonton (Speedtest.net didn't pick it because the ping was a little higher):

Shaw Broadband 50:


Telus Optik:


Three to four times as fast.  I'll try and remember to do another test tonight during "peak" hours (7:00pm - 10:00pm).

[Mr. Analog]

I've been quite happy with Shaw for the most part.

I've been even happier since dumping Vuze for ?Torrent... WORLD of difference.

[Thorin]

Yes, I've been using uTorrent for several years now - I siwtched when Vuze was still called Azureus.  It's memory and CPU footprint is so much lower.

[Lazybones]

No surprises there...

The problem is that Telus Optic TV is cheaper for multi-room especially since you can use an Xbox, but internet wise I can't see any advantage to Telus.

[Lazybones]

For torrents I run Transmission daemon, if you want to serve more than one person in the house off of one program it is VERY handy and is low on resource use. Hell I was running it on my NAS till recently.

[Thorin]

No surprises there...

The problem is that Telus Optic TV is cheaper for multi-room especially since you can use an Xbox, but internet wise I can't see any advantage to Telus.

We got six months of discounted bills with Telus.  When I got my first real Telus bill, I can tell you it was within a few dollars of what we were paying for Shaw's services.  There's two ways you can go with Shaw - regular terminals, or Gateway.  The Gateway works the same as Telus's Optik TV, with one big PVR and satellite portals to play the content on.  I've seen the Gateway on sale for the same price as Telus's equipment now ($378 for PVR + portal compared to $199 + $179 for Telus's equipment).

Shaw is now giving us three months cheap and 3 months regular price, with no contract signing required.  I'll see what the bill is after three months.

[Lazybones]

The Gateway works the same as Telus's Optik TV, with one big PVR and satellite portals to play the content on.  I've seen the Gateway on sale for the same price as Telus's equipment now ($378 for PVR + portal compared to $199 + $179 for Telus's equipment).

The point was that some of the Telus promo's where including the PVR, and possibly a satellite... Also if you already have an Xbox 360 you had an additional satellite already.

I have been on Shaw for years now, don't plan on changing any time soon, they have been upping their caps and upload speeds just enough to keep me happy.

[Tom]

I've been pretty happy since they replaced my drop, and fixed the trencher's bad hookup job. Stable as a rock \o/. seeing 6MB/s is pretty whicked. Too bad I'll have to downgrade in january. Can't afford the $80-90 they want for it. But 25/2.5 is still nice.

[Melbosa]

While I agree the Shaw internet solutions are the better (in cost per speed and service), I think your comparisons aren't being a bit fair to Telus.  Your Optik is the basic plan that Telus gives with the TV.  Speed wise even the higher plans compare as Telus doesn't even offer a 50mbps speed internet account.  It kinda like comparing Telus to Uniserve, which doesn't offer plans that match Telus (even though they are a "high-speed" provider, and then posting speed comparison charts.  I would instead compare the plans and cost; there Shaw wins on speed alone.

If I could, I would change to Shaw, but as Lazy pointed out, the deals I got switching to Telus for the 3 years has save myself good amounts of money (and if Shaw had not reworked their plans with the new 50s, I would still save a lot of money per month).  But now I must suffer with my limited internet, but my pocket book is still ok at the end of the month.  Switching now is not a luxury I have, unlike Thorin that could.  Would cost me more, even with the $300 visa cards counted in, to break my contract.

[Tom]

I dunno, I think the comparison is fair. If they just don't have the same speeds, that's a pretty big downside. Lets see telus try and support 100mbps or 250mbps any time soon

[Thorin]

My point was that once Telus stopped discounting the bill I had to pay $150+ per month.  My wife switched us to Telus because there was a show on a channel that Shaw doesn't carry that our youngest really likes.  I was okay with it because it cost less than Shaw ($165 a month).  Now 8 or so months later, I'm switching back because Shaw is cheaper: $60 a month for three months, $120 a month for three months, $300 in prepaid VISA cards = $240 for six months, compared to Telus's $900 for the same period.

It's not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison - Shaw will give me less channels than Telus did.  However, the channels I got from Telus had a lot of repetition, to the point where usually I could only find one interesting show to watch out of 100+ channels.  Also, Telus was a multi-room pause-live-tv system, where the Shaw system is a PVR only on the main TV.

When it comes to internet, though, speed is king.  If I can get four times the speed for roughly the same cost (or cheaper, in this case), well, then I'm gonna point that out to friends and family.

So, I'm recording an HD show (the hockey game), and it's 9pm so still in prime time for internet usage, and here's the stats:

Shaw Broadband 50:


Telus Optik:


So much for cable internet getting slow because you have to share it with others.

And the funny thing is, if Telus had kept their bill down to around a hundred a month, we wouldn't have considered switching...

[Lazybones]

So much for cable internet getting slow because you have to share it with others.

That was fixed years ago when they switched to DOCIS, and started rolling out upgrades faster.

[Mr. Analog]

I think locality still matters, the fastest down I can get is 25Mb/s

[Darren Dirt]

I'm moving back south in Feb or March and I was pretty sure sure I'd be going back to Shaw (now that my 6 month discount has ended). Happy surprise to see this kind of fact-based discussion right now, I just gotta say...