Telus

So my internet is out again tonight. I’m quite pissed off about it so I thought I’d type this out in word and post it when (if) my connection starts back up tomorrow. In the last few months I’ve been having a few problems with Telus ADSL, and tonight might be the elephant that crushes my faith in their service. For a while now I’ve been having sync issues with my modem. Randomly, my modem will just cut out and the ADSL light will go out. Great, no internet. It sometimes lasts for up to 3 or 4 hours, but normally for less than 20 minutes. I know, it’s not a long time, but when it does it 10 – 50 times a day, it can get really damn annoying. My solution? I phoned Telus to see if they couldn’t fix it. Their solution? It’s not their problem, it’s mine. Great service, I tell ya. It’s unbelievable how when a company becomes too big they care so deeply about their customers that got them there. I first hooked up my “high-speed” ‘net when it first became available 6.5 years ago. That means I’ve been paying $40 a month, which is ~3000 dollars for internet. You’d think they could give me a little customer service just once. Whatever.

Also, Telus, who promised unlimited bandwidth, has now started to monitor how much I upload and download. They’ve sent threatening e-mails and letters, which I conveniently ignored, and which they’ve now stopped sending. 10GB a month. That’s what they want me to stick to. Give me high-speed internet that can download 12GB a day! and expect me to only download 10GB a month? Get real. I bet I get more than that per month in junk mail. Fix the stupid spam filter, Telus, and I’ll only be 340GB over my limit instead of 350. Well, a few weeks ago they raised their limit to 30GB. Wow! Awesome! You guys are the bestest in the whole entire cyber-world! $40 for a 1.5Mbit line. $40 for a 7Mbit line through Shaw (although their limits suck almost as bad). I read on Google news that you can get 100Mbit line in Asia for about $20/month. 100Mbit??!?!?!? That’s unbelievable.

Shaw, in the fall, will be offering telephone service. Telus, in the fall, will be offering Cable TV service. Now, with my huge 1.5Mbit line, can I really get digital quality TV through my ADSL line? I know, they’ll use a separate line, but still, you’re going to have to upgrade your lines so why not just make ADSL 10Mbit for the lowest package with higher bandwidth costing more money?? The modems you force people to buy support it (I believe I read that), so why not just do it? How much do you pay per GB? 30 cents? Maybe? You own the trunk, you own all the local lines… Grrrrr…

I may look into Primus.ca as my ISP. They have 1.5Mbit available in Kelowna (although I hear you’d be lucky to get 1.1Mbit out of them. That’s funny because they lease the same line from Telus!), and, like it or not, their about the only viable competition around. In Western Canada we have nearly nothing as far as ISPs go. Ontario has a ton of choices, with better rates and better speeds. Maybe it’s time to go east. Hahaha! I think not. I read up on broadbandreports.com every few days and see all of these people bitching constantly about Telus and Shaw and the lack of good ISPs in Western Canada. Maybe it’s time to stop lazing around and actually do something about it. Would it be difficult to lay fiber across the West? Nah, probably not. It would be a good idea though because a ton of people hate Telus and Shaw. And to offer good speeds with reasonable prices… You could make some money, while at the same time make a lot of people happy.

Wait, I just had a better idea. What about WiFi access throughout the valley. At least in the cities. Each town in the Okanagan valley is situated at the bottom of the valley with a high point across Okanagan Lake. A tower could be set up, for example in Kelowna, across the lake at McDougall Rim. That one tower could cover up almost all of Kelowna. I read somewhere that the new Wireless ISPs can cover a range of up to 45 Kilometres. That’s a phenomenal distance! Hrrrmmm… I should look into this.

Okay, so I guess that ends my rant. It’s been about 8 hours now without internet and I’m REALLY not impressed. It better be working in the morning.

Update: It's midnight and after cycling the modem and the computer one more time my connection finally works. Yay for me!