Telus Optik vs shaw
 

So a sales rep came to my door offering me a promotion for one year. Main selling point was the changes to their telus service and how you get your own dedicated internet line and its not separate from the tv.

I told shaw I was cancelling and they have me am okay counter offer but not as cheap as telus.

Anyone have experience with the new telus services? I really don't want to go through the hassles of switching especially if its not that much better.
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I've had it for 4 years now and I've had no issues what so ever. It all depends on the installer and how good of a job he does in installing your service to ensure no dropped packets and clean lines straight out of the CO. Telus does have a high standard when it comes to these installs however some slip through the cracks.

Personally I love the UI of the Telus TV system. Sometimes I feel it could be slightly faster, however nothing major. I have Optic 50 internet and its blazing fast... consistent 50mbps all the time at any time of day.

in terms of actual service they are both pretty similar nowadays... the UI on shaw's gateway system is different from their regular boxes it's more similar to telus's optik tv. as for tv. if u ain't running lots of tv with different hd channels at the same time then service is fine.. if you are then it'll affect ur internet coz they are sharing the bandwidth..

Been using Telus TV before it was commercially released. Landline since forever and Internet since forever. No complaints. Pretty happy. Did use Shaw at one point but they kept raising prices and the service (at the time) was terrible. I know lots of people who are happy with Shaw.

All the same shit, just different pile. Pick your poison.

it's all the same.

I have had both, and was happy with both. When I had the choice (at my current place) I did choose shaw though. My reasons aren't very good other than I like the UI with the shaw gateway system or whatever it's called.

I think they said that the tv and Internet no longer share the same connection anymore. And telus does have HD Fairchild which is a kicker.

But on the other hand having the guy come install everything is a pain.
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I found Telus' HDPVR UI to be better than Shaw's HDPVR, however this was a year ago I am not sure if they have an upgraded one.

Also I rarely had an issue with Telus' customer service over the phone, always very quick to answer and helpful.

Also prices for Telus seem to be usually cheaper than Shaw; currently they have a $15/$15 for TV/Internet for 6 months, and you can always call in and threaten to cancel to have it extended.

So the sales rep lied. Apparently Optik TV and internet still share the same bandwidth.

How is everyone's experience with that? If you're gaming online and someone else is watching HD tv, does it lag?

I have a 15Mb package and it is fine with 2 HD TVs and 3 computers at home. No experience with the gaming aspect. Hopefully somebody can chime in on that.

if it's optik 25 it's fine unless you also have another TV on or few other computers streaming/downloading. An average Full HD stream is about 5-10mbps so you still have 15 for internet/another TV. Keep in mind TV streams are 720p/1080i so that usage is a bit lower.

i dont have optik but i was only on 25 with many heavy users at home and it simply didn't cut it with stock FW QoS...upgraded to 50 last week and the issue went away completely....i get 53mbps down and 11mbps up

ive been with telus DSL since '97 and I recommend them because their speeds are consistent and bandwidth caps are not enforced. I was on shaw briefly for a few years and I'd recall speeds being bogged down during peak hours because of the nature of cable...from another thread that seems to have changed. Only gripe is with Telus their Tech Support treat you like a grandma noob so you have to explain what you've already done to remedy the situation. Long story short just google/ask DSLreports forum for answers instead of calling Telus.

I agreed to internet 15.

What would typical happen at the same time is 1 person playing games online, 1 person watching HD tv while recording another channel, and 1 person streaming videos on a computer.


sounds like a lot for internet 15 to handle eh?

Landlord is a Telus rep, he has the Optik TV/Internet/Phone package (not sure what speed) it sucked balls. Constantly dropped me off the network because I'm not right under the router (Telus router), downloads took forever, couldn't watch Youtube or play games if they were watching Tv (it was really slow).

We have Shaw now (separate from the landlord) and everything is very smooth, only had the internet go down once and it was back up within 10 minutes. So like everyone has said, it's really just personal preference :)

okay... let me clear this up... if you have optic TV and say you're on 15 meg service, the service to your modem is actually 21 to 23 megs... this is to allocate the extra 6 to 8 megs specifically for TV.

It will not slow down your internet service at all if you have all tv's on using HD.

if you are getting the 25 meg service, the actual train rate is at 31 to 33 megs, and if you are getting the 50 meg service the actual train rate is 60 to 63 megs.

The TV service will never cut into your internet bandwidth. unless!!! and only unless the installer didn't do a proper install and you have faults on ur cable pair lines and crap like that but again, telus has high standards when it comes to customer premises installs.

I think it really depends on area.

for internet, Now, we are staying with Shaw Broadband 250.......so friggin fast and stable.
Shared to 6 PCs in the house. No any signs of slowing down.

250mbps DL = 31mb per sec DL speed.
15mbps UL = 1.8mb per sec UL speed.

some big ass 40gb iso files only take less than an hour to finish

Reminds me. My brother in Hong Kong has 1gbps download speed. 1000mbps.wish we had that here.
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If any Vancouver ISP has 1gbps service with reasonable price, I would jump on it right the way.

i think they're about the same nowadays. shaw has been a bit more reliable for me though. but shaw's cable box UI's are downright pathetic. the motorola hd pvr UI looks like complete garbage... shit isn't even 16:9 and it looks like it came out of 1995. my gf has the 3200 with the new HD UI (i love that they just abandoned the old one), and it's laggy as fuck. telus seems more advanced and has apps for you to set recordings.

This. Router is located in the opposite corner of my house, has an unbelievably shitty signal, can't do anything. Otherwise service has been fine for the most part. Too bad you can't just swap your own router in.

I'm gonna add a bit to this. I speak from my own personal experience only and nobody else.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had Telus TV prior to commercial launch. I won't go into details but let's just say I've seen it all when it came down to quality of service. nabs is correct - it all comes down to the installer. Some do a better job than others but the same can be said for any company. Afterall, these guys are human and there is a learning curve or they are simply having a shitty day.

HOWEVER - Telus regularly sends out a Quality Assurance manager to follow up on the install. He or she will personally come to your house to assess the install and to ask you questions so really, they want to make sure nothing went wrong. Of all the times they came to my house, they physically inspected the installs and went through everything in some mother fucking deep ass detail, it was some scary shit.

To some people, it's an inconvenience but hey, I am paying $1xx/month for their bundled services and it's nice to have the peace of mind that I'm doing business with a company that is being accountable for their products and services. For those of you who are experiencing problems with their router, either use your own or speak to their customer service to request a new one. Telus customer service has been so far one of the best and most supportive.

Take my personal experience with a grain of salt. Again, I didn't use Shaw at the time due to the circumstances in which they were upgrading their facilities and nobody in my area at the time had Telus. Internet speeds were slow, television quality was poor, support was non-existent, and they constantly kept jacking up their prices. If I absolutely had to switch to Shaw, I wouldn't have a problem doing that.

I used to be with Shaw Extreme (their old package), which I believe was 25Mbps, overall it was great, but at times when I was trying to use it at peak hours - the download speeds would drop down to 10Mbps or lower. It didn't happen often, but enough for me to remember.

Switched to Telus a year ago, went with Optik, TV and Internet - 25Mbps, it's great. Consistent speeds. TV takes up a bit, but usually only 5Mbps or so for us.

My buddy lives in a new condo, and he's currently with Telus. He said a few of his neighbours are with Shaw, and they all complain of slowdowns during peak hours because everyone in his building will hammer the bandwidth at the same time.

I guess it really depends on your area.


And btw - to those who complain about the Telus Router, ya, it's terrible - but there's nothing stopping you from hooking up a wireless router next to it and just disable the Wifi on your Telus one. That's what I do here, bought a nice powerful router, no problem accessing it anywhere in the house.

cause Telus installed their shitty firmware on the gateway and won't let you put it in bridge mode unless you have root login.

double routing makes it a PITA to port forward.

THIS!

Also I know the Telus WiFi routers are shit, Telus knows this as well. Unfortunately there is nothing a Tech can really do in this situation except ask you to buy a third party WiFi router as Telus does not guarentee the range of the WiFi signal.

I've found the WiFi on my Telus router is too good. I can walk away almost a half block away, go into the garage, be in the basement and it's still connected. God damn it!

#FirstWorldProblems

yeah, that makes sense - but for the vast majority of the people here - they don't need to port forward and all that good stuff. Most people just don't know that they can double route - not the best route, but works just fine for me.