Forum Discussion
Telus and the frustrating experience I've had with them.
I've been in a uphill battle with Telus over internet for about 2 years now and I've had enough as they no longer respond to my messages and I'm not willing to contact them if nothing is changing. I'...
Nighthawk
Community Power User
Community Power UserA new port doesn't mean faster speed. It's basically like another connection of the same speed that's already available. Telus isn't installing additional copper hardware in most areas. Everything is transitioning to fibre. It wouldn't make financial sense to install additional copper hardware in an area that will be getting fibre. Fibre will likely be available long before the new copper hardware has earned enough to cover the cost of the hardware and installation.
I'm on 25mbps as well so I can understand where you're coming from.
Yeah but I can't even ask for Fibre where I just got off with Shaw and said they could give me Fibre internet
- Nighthawk
If the Shaw sales rep is willing to lie to you and tell you they actually have fibre to the house, that would be a red flag to me and make me wonder what else they're willing to mislead a potential customer on just to make a sale.
Shaw doesn't offer fibre connections to the house. They offer a deceptively named "Fibre+" which is fibre to the node that services a wide area, and then good old copper to the house. It's the same as they've always had but now with a fancy new marketing gimmick. Their upload speeds are also still completely pathetic too. Real fibre which has symmetrical speeds (same up and down) which Shaw can never offer while they're still using copper.
I've had Shaw not too long ago and couldn't keep a stable speed. During peak hours it would come to a crawl even with their "fibre". My DSL on the other hand has been very consistent and reliable. For what I do at least, 25mbps is sufficient for my needs (remote work, video conferencing, gaming). I'd rather wait for real fibre than get back a service from Shaw that can't keep a consistent speed.
Everything Nitehawk says is correct with respect to adding copper infrastructure and Shaw's deceiving marketing. However that doesn't excuse Telus for not answering messages and ignoring clients. I've been through the same thing. Luckily everything is working great now, but dealing with Telus can be excruciating. Their agents are not given adequate training or empowerment and wait times of an hour + are normal. This is definitely an area that requires significant improvement.
If the DSL 25 service truly doesn't suit your needs, then in your particular case it may make sense to go to Shaw for the time being. Even though it's not fibre, it still is significantly faster and as long as your neighbourhood isn't oversubscribed you should have a better connection. I do note that I've got both Shaw and Telus internet (Shaw's my work line) and the Shaw service is disrupted more frequently. So it's speed vs. reliability - which one is more important to you? There's nothing stopping you from coming back to Telus in a few years once Fibre becomes available.
