Any Canadians on here not on broadband?

[GL]

Just wondering if there are any Canadians here that aren't on broadband. If so, are you in an area that has access or not? The reason I'm asking is that I think the cost of $4 billion the Liberals have been branded with as to their promise to offer high-speed Internet to all Canadians by 2004 is a bit misleading. I'm sure it'll cost quite a bit of money but two-way Satellite internet is expected to be offered to Canadians sometimes this year at around $50/month I believe (saw a story on Slashdot the other day about this).

I was never aware the Liberals made this promise but it doesn't even sound like they have to put in any effort to fulfill it - the private sector has done the job for them.

Here's part of the promise:



<< All Canadians should have equitable and affordable access to broadband services
Focus should be on communities where the private sector is unlikely to deliver services
First Nation, Inuit, rural and remote communities should take first priority
Investment estimates vary wildly depending on whether the infrastructure includes support for transport to communities or access within communities
&quot;Accessibility&quot; means more than simply infrastructure ? it also means content, services and building community and individual capacity. >>



Much improved short link

 

[SSP]

Hmm... A friend of mine has been using satallite internet access for a while now (not 2 way thoug, he uses phone line to uplaod sh!t).


I have broadband btw.

BTW, It aint fair your excluding us broadband users from your thread, I don't pay 40 bucks a month to be ignored dammit!

 

[Aquaman]

I'm not on broadband but it is available in my area, both cable &amp; DSL. I really don't need it for what I do, just surfing and the occasional patch or driver download.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[GL]

OK 2-way Satellite Internet access is indeed an option. I suspect the opposition will again get their a$$ handed to them on a silver platter by the &quot;arrogant&quot; Liberals

I wish we had smarter opposition parties. You'd think they'd at least correspond with experts in the field before they go alleging $4 billion price tags for the mere option of broadband and a website or two.

2 way Satellite Internet Service



<< The federal government, through Tobin's department, has promised to make high-speed Internet access available to all Canadians by 2004 and his Broadband Task Force is expected to tell him how later this month. But Miles says he's selling such a service right now, using satellites.


&quot;They can have it. They can have it today,&quot; says Miles, sitting in the boardroom of Internova Communications Inc. in Owen Sound. >>

 

[Soulflare]

Of the twenty or so people that I know connect to the Internet,
only one does so through dialup (my father, because he has a
laptop and travels), everyone else is either running DSL or
@Home. Canada leads the world when it comes to households with
internet access and also households with broadband Internet
connections by a very healthy margin.

p.s. That's one damn wide post there sonny.

 

[StageLeft]

I was on it the second it was available.

acquaman Use it and then go back to your modem and you'll see that you _need_ it. You're not surfing the web right now - you're paddling in the shallow water.

If indeed you've seen highspeed in action and still think your modem is ok well there is no hope for ya!

 

[SSP]

How fast is it? (plese post the #'s in Bytes, not Bits, I hate #'s in Bits).

 

[GL]

The 2-way service is CDN$150 a month which puts it at a smaller pricetag than some Americans pay for high speed access (I've seen bills for as high as US$80 a month). It's still not at the levels of urban high-speed services for CDN$40 though.



<< The system provides download speeds 16 times faster than a regular phone line and sends information five times faster. >>



If this is based on 56kb/s modems, then it operates at 896kb/s download, and 286kb/s upload. Doesn't touch cable or DSL but is definitely high-speed for rural residents. And I'm sure service will improve as the technology improves.

For SSP That's 112kB/s download, and ~36kB/s upload.

Keep in mind those are all theoretical limits and TCP/IP takes up some of that bandwidth in and of itself.

 

[Pepsi90919]

bytes = bits/8

 

[kami]

Nope, I've been on DSL for about 2 years. Everyone I know, except for a couple, is on broadband (either cable or DSL) too. those who still have dialup only have like 20 hour/month packages because they barely use it.

 

[Aquaman]

I know the power of broadband but I can't justify subscribing to it (I've got a mortgage) Now if we ever get slower versions of DSL that cost the same as my dial-up then I'll switch

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[BigToque]

I've got @Home cable here in Winnipeg, MB.

It costs $39.99/Mth (cdn, obviously ). My old dial-up ISP cost $29.99/Mth.

For $10 more, I get much more than $10 worth of dial-up service.

 

[SSP]

bytes = bits/8

I know that. I'm too lazy to do the math. In fact, I was so lazy, I made a program in VB to do it for me (and a friend), but I lost it. (Iknow)


I don't think Broadband is necessary for people who just want to surf/download small files (like Aquaman). But for guys who download big files, it?s a blessing.

 

[Aquaman]

I could get DSL for $30 because I can get a deal from my long distance provider (AIC in BC). But I'm paying $15 for 75 hours and I'm not even really using it.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[StageLeft]

But, Acquaman, you can save so much time not waiting for it to dial in and the pages to creep into your browser window Last time I used dialup was a few months ago and I nearly had to take my own life!

 

[HansHurt]

I am Canadian....I am on Broadband


I pay 39.95/mo for a damn fast cable connect...give ma a good d/l source, and I'll suck it up at 900kb/sec


Much better than that @home BS

 

[StageLeft]

Oh - and I'm on cable now at $40/month. About 1 mbps upload and 2-3 mbps download (they say 5 but the truth is its only 2-3, 4 on a magical server I occasionally run into).

 

[GL]

HansHurt,

Actually I've got @Home but have downloaded at my fastest ~800Kb/s. Course, I had the connection before it was @Home. Maybe that has something to do with it. My uploads suck though!

 

[Soulflare]

<< I know the power of broadband but I can't justify subscribing to
it (I've got a mortgage) Now if we ever get slower versions of DSL
that cost the same as my dial-up then I'll switch >>



Don't you value your time?

I switched from dialup to Bell Canada's 10Mbps Cable Modems in
early 1998 (pilot project in London, ON and Repentigny, QC), and
although Bell really stuck it to early adapters ($130 setup, $52
per month), I was ready to kiss that big white Nortel cable modem
within hours following the installation. The time savings a heavy
net user will experience over a month is quite incredible, and is
certainly worth the premium.

And we will seduce you to the dark side Aqua, oh yes. hehehehe

 

[HansHurt]

I am on DCCNet..from shaw cable....the nodes are really underpopulated which is cool. Delta Cable, it only services about 7000 people at the moment I believe, and if you call tech support they pick up by the third ring at the latest



Actually though I forgot to mention the downside.....the d/l limit per/mo is like 2gb or something...you have to pay for each 100mb after that. Also it has a dynamic IP...which can be a hassle.

 

[Soulflare]

In Bearshare, I've had my @home connection downloading at upwards
of 1.2Mb per second, and although I don't believe my upload speed
is capped, it rarely exceeds 400kbps.

 

[GL]

That explains it HansHurt,

Up until this year I was with Shaw Cable. They've got kickass service. For a while after Rogers took over the service, I had repeated outages and it was a$$ slow. Now I seem to be back up to par but my upload speeds still are bad. I've stopped trading warez so that's not a big deal anymore

 

[SSP]

I pay 39.95/mo for a damn fast cable connect...give ma a good d/l source, and I'll suck it up at 900kb/sec


Much better than that @home BS


Much better? How so? I havent had any problems so far. Gimme a good d/l source and I'll suck it up at 2.4Mb/s (did this yesterday btw).

I also get a good ping, ~20+ depending on the server I'm playing.

 

[HansHurt]

Well, all I can say is that my friends that are in heavily populated areas have nothing but problems....so that's what I am basing my opinion on...they bitch about the tech support to. Of course there are other areas that probably do quite well.




No offense.

 

[SSP]

I understand. I've heard a lot of those complaints (BTW, I'm in Toronto... can't get any more populated then that (in CAN.). Maybe its cause I rarely use tech support.