Some NSFW language and text:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ilMx7k7mso

Hahahaha... good one!

Nice!

Dunno whether to laugh or to cry.

If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought this was an actual Rogers commercial.

For once service here is better than in the US. I don't recall the last time I was out of service and usually when there's a problem they fix it as fast as possible. The speeds are what they advertise and they even give free stuff like a free subscription to a online music library whith the latest hits all available to be streamed on the desktop, TV or mobile without caps of any kind and DRM free downloads of the songs.

The standard package these days include 100Mb fiber connection 140 channels, free national land line phone and cell phone calls 24/7 all for around 80 euros.

Why is this?

Simple.


Because the government forced the companies to comply to very strict regulatory laws that allow the users to jump to other service provider easily if they don't like the current one. So now every company is trying to beat the competition with better services. The downside is being constantly badgered by their sales reps calling and going door to door asking if we are happy with our service and want to change.

They are worse than jehovas witnesses, lol.

PS: This doesn't mean there aren't issues sometimes but once they come to public they fix it quickly to try and avoid bad publicity.

Similar experience here, DE. Even when I was on DSL, the speeds were "as promised," when I signed up for "up to 6Mb/s," they tested my line and said I can only get 2 and that's what I got for the most part. Now I'm on a fiber optic broadband connection at 60Mb/s and that is what I get. So far I've not experienced any downtime with either service.

The fixing bit was funny...."allowing us to raise our prices to optimum c*ckbag levels"

Ahhhh. The truth hurts, doesn't it?

The funny thing is that here we don't really have the same problems, but what we do have, and not just in telco, is crap infrastructure. Not everywhere, of course; my place in Atherstone usually gets as-advertised (or at least decent) speeds, whereas my folks place in London varies, simply because its 3km further away from the exchange. And it gets worse in the rain.

I did see a BT Fibre sticker on a comms panel down the other street though... I smell... potential.

I will say that while it used to be that bad here, in the last 10 years my service has been pretty good. We still have occasional outages, but they're usually fairly brief and they're a lot less common than they used to be.
Prices could be better I suppose, but I have phone, HD DVR and cable w/no premium channels, and 50Mbps internet for $120/mo + $3.50 cable modem rental. Taxes and fees are another lovely $10.

Oh, I just signed back up for HBO for GoT/True Blood season, and unfortunately you can only get all 15 HBO channels together, so it's $22/month. Could've had Cinemax's bunch as well for $27, but we don't watch cable movies that often and these HBO ones will suffice. Of course, to get ALL of them is just over $40/mo, so they definitely price them better in bulk.




The Jedi Master

Yeah, it's just a bit of humor, folks, with a tinge of truth to it.

In all honesty, I can't say that I'm disappointed with my service. I'm getting the quoted speeds, even through third-party bandwidth speed test sites, and I can't remember the last actual outage they had. I've had a few hiccups with my cable modem, but it's only been two or three times in the past two years, and a reboot fixed it.

The DVR boxes seem slow and clunky sometimes, but I'm not sure that's the cable company's fault as much as the available DVR device options.

Over the years, I've actually had the cable company, on their own volition, offer me better deals. On two occasions they gave me more channels while at the same time dropping the price, I assume because AT&T was coming into the area and making a big push. So maybe there is at least a little competition in my area.

My service quality with TWC was excruciatingly bad for the first 8 months or so. Turned out that the wires to my box on the telephone pole were corroded and exposed. Took no less than 4 repair tech visits until someone bothered to climb the pole to investigate. I raised hell with TWC and have gotten about $250 in various credits, refunds and promotions. Even then, I still wish Google Fiber would go nationwide.

Even Verizon is dropping out of that now. Fios is where it is and that's it.



The Jedi Master