Hi all,
I have been in the country for 26 years and have not known anything other than dial up and "broadband" as classified by the CRTC (yes Canada). The fastest speed I have ever reached is 10 down, 5 up, 200 GB a month at 118 CAD a month with Storm Internet. It is nuts but is the only thing I have found remotely usable for streaming and gaming while leaving some bandwidth for others in the house. The other thing was reliability and for a LOS wireless tower I was impressed by its stability.
Now comes the selling of this house and we are moving into the city, Ottawa Ontario, where DSL and Cable is everywhere and my knowledge is lacking in those infrastructures. Im looking for do's and dont's of negotiating with ISPs for a new connection and potential risks when choosing DSL over cable or vice-versa. I already know that I am going to buy my own modem to go with my current router and as such would appreciate any modem suggestions.
Main companies I have come across in my research so far:
monopoly bastards: Bell, Rogers
smaller fish: Teksavvy, Smart(start?) Communications, netfox(?), Vmedia
Price range: ~100$ a month
bandwidth preferred: id like to see 100/50/300gb which would be useable anything higher would be great. is this realistic? I have no idea.
update 1: it seems that Techsavvy is the way to go. They are a third party isp that uses rogers last mile infrastructure but are reliable and provide decent service. As with all companies there are a few horror stories floating around. Rogers will be a close second as people say they deliver the service they promise but at a premium cost that they will not negotiate because they are so large. They also offer gigabit service for a about what im paying now in the country. The ISP i go with will be Techsavvy or Rogers so I need to find a modem that can support the speeds that I acquire from them. Bell was frowned upon by many because while the service itself may be decent the billing is horrendous as random charges start appearing months after signing up. Next step: find a modem to go with my Asus RT-N66U.
update 2: In Ottawa it appears we have a not for profit ISP called National Capital Free Net. Its a members helping members community internet provider. Speeds are limited to 50/10 or less but with no data caps. While this is a great offering in our community I am looking for much higher bandwidth.