HawthorneVillager.com

I personally haven't used the service or have dealt with the people at standard broadband, so I won't say either they are good or bad, but both my carpool buddies have now quit and have gone over to Bell for their internet services. They both were upset about outages that Standard Broadband had, and both of them were reliant on internet for their VoIP phones, which impacted them badly. Aside from that, they were not quite impressed with the two people that picked up the phone when customer service was called i.e. John or Tom.

One thing is for sure, if you do decide to move over to Standard Broadband, you have no recourse - what I mean is that you'll pay for $200 for installation, which is non-refundable, and will end up with their satellite dish over your roof, even if you want to move out of their services. Just be cognicent of the decision you make and know pros & cons of it.

For me, I am happy customer of Cogeco I've got nothing but good to say about their service, and customer service. Yes, they are a bit pricey, and don't have unlimited bandwidth like Standard Broadband, but everyone has to weigh the services based on their own situation, and I am happy with 175Gb per month with 30Mbps download speed (atleast for now) for $45/month. If you want more bandwidth, then Start or Standard Broadband may be the way to go.

We have had standard broadband for almost two months. We have never had an outage or problems. Whenever I have emailed, I have gotten a reply back quickly. I am happy with their service. Not quite sure how I feel about their facebook page, but the service has been really good.

I am in the Thompson/Derry area.

Jennifer

Really? really? Someone would go to Bell for more reliability? And your buddies complained about Standard Broadbands support..? Have you actually tried Bell in the last few years? It is horrible for the most part.
Since I am a local IT guy supporting hundreds of home and small business clients in the Milton area I see tham all, up close and personal.. For me the ONLY 2 choices currently are either Cogeco and Standard Broadband (depending on where you are).

None are perfect but these 2 are well ahead of the rest.. Not really considering price here, only service/support and reliability.

How? I've had Bell for years and it's been quite reliable. Not that I'm a fan really of Bell but there's no way I would say its horrible.

Does Bell still offer dial up internet? Serious question. That would be horrible.

The $200 installation fee for Standard Broadband is actually not that bad. This will cover the cost of the equipments (dish and modem on the roof, cables, etc.) and the installer's fee.

They were giving 6 months of service for their fastest speed (rated 15 Mbps but from time to time I clocked it up to 28 Mbps) for $25/mo when I got their service. I'm not sure if they are still offering the said promo or not. Regular rate is $45 / mo for the fastest speed.

Therefore, the cost of internet for 6 months would be 200 + (6x25) = $350 or $58.33 / mo. That price includes the modem (other provider either you buy one or lease the modem) and installation fee (most providers charges installation fee too but cheaper).

Now, go to Rogers, Bell or Cogeco and see how much would it cost you for their package that is closed to unlimited service (add monthly service fee, modem rental, set-up / installation fee for new accounts) for 6 months and then compute what's the monthly cost.

By the way, if you would discontinue your service from them, I was told that their technician will remove the dish-modem combo and cables from your roof. The wireless modem band on the roof is highly proprietary and could only be used on their licensed frequency therefore, they want it back.

there's something other than dial-up available?

Great timing on the coupon, worked well for me

Just got it installed today. Very clean installation. For my location they had to install a tripod to clear 3 story town houses adjacent to our house. I am getting full advertised speed at the router. So far so good.

Can someone who's a current customer run and post their results from speedtest.net?

Believe it or not, there are area's that can't get high speed yet... I have a customer who cannot get it and has dial up - I can't imagine...

I have standard broadband running for approx 3 weeks now, I signed up for 15 Mbps down service, here are my observations:

1. Internet has been down once for half an hour due to West tower problem, the one on the escarpment.
2. Speed fluctuates all the time, I rarely get 15Mbps, usually its in the range of 6 to 9 Mbps.
3. Upload speeds are great, always usually more than 5 Mbps.
4. My internet speed from my roof antenna to the tower at the escarpment is always 15Mbps down and 15Mbps up. This leads me to believe that they don't have enough bandwidth at the back-end anymore to provide actual internet (public) speed of 15Mbps down.

Here are some of the links that shows my speedtest.net results:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2217432869.png
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2217441462.png

Over all I am not too happy, hoping if they tell me if its temporary. Is anyone getting minimum 15Mbps (public internet speed measured through speedtest.net) constantly?

that's a ridiculous upload. Not so pleased about the download, esp if I'm coming from this:

but the unlimited data is a nice to have compared to the 275GB I've got now

Some more tests today:

With Netgear Wireless Router
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2218404598.png
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2218406091.png
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2218453460.png

Direct Connection to Laptop
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2218412440.png
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2218421455.png
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2218422861.png

When you do the speed test, try doing it before the router (exclude your router). The computer should be connected directly to the ethernet cable coming from the modem on the roof. That should be the proper benchmark because that's the speed they are offering after their equipment (modem). Secondly, that would eliminate the chance that other equipments are also using the internet connection.

Testing the speed after the router could give a lower speed. Also, speed testing varies on which server you are testing.

Try to do your speed test in here:

http://www.standardbroadbandhome.ca/support/