Judy Shire captured this image this morning at 8:07 AM
High speed feedback
Tisdale - Tuesday, February 12, 2013
by:Timothy W. Shire
Each and every day about fifty people visit this web site even though I only up date the site about once a week but from the statistics we have visitors from all across Canada, many from the United States and some regular readers from the United Kingdom. Most stories do not solicit much response but it is not unusual for people to telephone me about a story. One of the really interesting aspects of this feedback is some of it comes after many years have passed since the story was originally posted and it is ofter difficult to put the comments with the story to which they are referring.
On February 2, I posted a story about the oddities of SaskTel’s internet service and I immediately got several email responses as people reported their satisfaction with the service they get while one reader continues to experience similar problems I have seen. The most interesting response came from Rochester, New York from a regular Ensign reader who had some conflict with his service provider and as he explored the topic he has some interesting explanations for all those numbers that are thrown around when it comes to internet speeds.
Ken Styne is happy with his SaskTel service, here is what he had to say about it:
What Hi Speeds package have you got with Sasktel. - Basic , Plus, Extreme, etc.
I have the Extreme; it's about $10.00 a month more than the Ultra (Package deal telephone, anytime LD, Caller ID name & number, etc. - no Max), I have been running it for well over a year now and have had no problems. I consistently get over 10 Mbps Download & over 800 Kbps.
When I was running Plus ; the story was different and might have compared with the problems you outline in your posting.
(We get the high speed package that comes with Max, it is not an option, if you take Max you get their Internet service. Most likely Ken is correct in that it probably is their bottom of the line high speed connection.)
Subsequently Ken went on in his next message to explain more details about SaskTel’s speeds.
Strange; I have not experienced any fluctuation of consequence. I would think what you see, is what you"SHOULD" get!
I've compared the two ; ACCESS HIGH SPEED GOLD vs SASKTEL HIGH SPEED EXTREME & yes Sasktel only show 800Kbps vs Access 1000Kbps - difference of 1/5 th Mbps ; however the upload is considerably higher with Sasktel. (Double). The above have been said; some people purchase a new car & have no problems - another person purchases an identical car & experience nothing but problems. What can you say, Guess it's just the world we live in with mass production, fast forwarding electronic technology , etc. Hell I historically have used Royale T.T. - purchased some Purex (supposedly recognised as the leader ), as it was on sale . Well; the tear off perforations weren't there . Imagine; you've got company & the guest use you bathroom; tear off a sheet or sheets (supposedly) & they end up with half a roll. Looked like a puppy had been left home alone & was punishing , or just playing - leaving half the roll dragged through thru the house. Phoned Purex & they apologised (cutting machine must have malfunctioned) & sent me a $10.00 coupon to use to purchase more of their product ???
SaskTel’s DSL (over the telephone) high speed internet service came to Tisdale before the cable company was providing internet service. I signed up immediately and for several years paid extra money each month to SaskTel to get high upload speeds to work on web pages. They called the service they were providing me “gamer” as it had a higher upload speed but I discovered after many years of paying for this supposed premium service that Tisdale had one speed and one speed only running over their connection to the province. Everyone was getting the same speed only I was paying more for it. When I discovered this I switched to the cable company.
Ken provided us with some comparative charts on SaskTel and Access service.
*Pricing based on combo price with AccessTV service. Internet only pricing: Bronze $19.95/mth; Silver $29.95/mth; Gold $44.95/mth. All pricing subject to change without notice. Some conditions apply.
Package recommendations based on optimum performance for the task listed.
We employ the latest tools to prevent viruses, however, Access Communications cannot guarantee your computer will be protected against all viruses. All rates exclude applicable taxes. Some conditions apply. Speeds described may vary by market. Services not available in all markets. Access services are subject to terms of use and occasionally amended. Minimum system requirements apply.
Below is SaskTel’s speed test only I am using my Access service and this is what I am getting tonight.
I reported that I was confused about the numbers used to measure speeds. Jack Rusick, who lives in Rochester has taken time to spell out the details used by the computer world.
Taking you at your words "damned if I know", I'll tell you all I know about it - it won't take long.
The clue to what you are reading should be the "b" or the "B" where the speed is shown. Unless someone is REALLY being deceptive, a lower case 'b" is in bits per second, an upper case "B" is bytes per second.
If your 5.5 ceiling is kilobytes, that's really not very good - kind of like a bad dial-up.
If it's megabits, it's respectable, but not all that great. Take about 1.5 seconds to down load a typical 1 mB file. (I'd guess this is what you have)
If it's megabytes you've REALLY got "Faster than Light" communications.
NOW - HERE'S THE (almost) WHOLE STORY
If someone is trying to sell us communication rates, there are more bits per unit time than there are bytes.
A "bit" is a binary 1 or binary 0
A byte is 8 bits
A kilobit is 1,000 (actually 1,024) bits, abbreviated kb (lower case b)
A megabit is 1,000,000 (actually 1,048,576) bits, abbreviated mb or sometimes Mb
A kilobyte is 1,000 (actually 1,024) bytes, abbreviated kB (upper case B)
A megabyte is 1,000,000 (actually 1,048,576) bytes, abbreviated mB or sometimes MB
Why 1,000 or 1,024 ??? Well, kilo means 1,000. But 2 raised to the 10th power is 1,024 - a nice "binary" number, and close enough to one thousand to be called a kilo something
Similarly, 2 raised to the 20th power is 1,048,576 - and pretty close to the one million "mega" means.
Now we know that we computer users rarely work with bits. File sizes are almost always expressed in bytes, be it kilobyte (KB) or Megabyte (MB).
I have seen advertisements for hard drives where the size had an asterisk beside it, and at the bottom of the page, in smaller type (of course) was the explanation that a megabyte meant 1,000,000 bytes - which made the drive sound as if it had some 4% more capacity than if they used the "normal" 1,048,576 bytes.
Remember your "Truth in advertising" rant against Subway some years ago? The computer industry has "improved" on their use of the asterisk. It's smaller than ever, and the disclaimer is off the bottom of the screen - using a very light grey colored font
Tim, I'm not trying to "talk down" to you. Many very knowledgeable people have absolute no reason to get into the nitty gritty of the arcane languages of narrow specialized fields. I don't profess to be an expert, it's just that I've had some of this thrust upon me so I'm a little more aware of the terms than the average bear.
I hope I've been of some help.
I appreciate Jack explaining these facts. I suspect my eyes and consciousness fog over when numbers and terms are something I am suppose to know and understand are brought to my attention.
In his next message Jack went on to tell about his struggle with his internet service provider:
Here's MY story
LOCATION: Just outside of Rochester, NY (North Chili, to be precise)
BACKGROUND:
My internet usage was quite limited. E-mail and an occasional "google" search. For many years I got by with a dial-up. But about six years ago, Time Warner Cable (TWC) offered a "special" whereby I could self-install a high speed internet connection, and if within thirty days I was not satisfied, I could return their equipment and get a full refund. I took them up on their offer.
PART 1
TWC advertising at the time was for speeds "Up to 10 megabits per second", i.e. very roughly 1 megabyte per second. Yes, I fully understand the phrase "up to". After I installed their cable modem and software I was really pleased with the difference in speed. BUT - - when I checked it using several different "speed tests", I found the absolute best I ever got was 3.2 megabits per second. More than adequate for my use, significantly better than dial-up, but NOT what I felt they were implying in their advertising.
Just before the thirty days was up, I returned their equipment and told them in no uncertain terms that although I was very pleased with the increase in speed that I had, I would absolutely not deal with a company that hid behind some weasel words to deliver something significantly inferior to what they were promoting. They said "Sorry you're unhappy" and refunded my money.
PART 2
About a year ago, TWC offered a bundle. Cable TV, Internet, and digital phone - no additional charges for calls to anywhere in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Since we have a daughter in Denver CO, another in Chicago IL, another in Utica NY, another just outside of our Local Calling Area, and parts of my wife's family in Saskatoon, Melfort, and Tisdale it seemed like a pretty obvious cost saving, even after the initial one year introductory offer - which was roughly $105 including fees, taxes, and equipment leases. When I returned to the same TWC office and spoke to the same woman, - she recalled me from a few years ago. I made it clear to her that the deal was for my wife - TV and Long Distance phone and that if I were living alone I wouldn't be dealing with them again. I also learned that after the end of the promotional period (1 year) their would be annual increases spread out over three or more years until I reached the regular "no-promotion" price (roughly $150.00)
By this time I had a new computer, With Windows Vista (circa 2008) instead of Windows ME (circa 2000), but not terribly different overall. After installing the modem, etc. I ran a few more speed tests, getting between 18 and 21 megabits per second.
"Ah-ha", I thought. "The S.O.Bs have now upgraded their system so its working as "advertised". They must have got into some real trouble with someone."
I decided to reconfigure everything to the other computer - and guess what - 3.2 to 3.3 megabits per second. At this time my strong Canadian ethical upbringing surfaced, I returned to the TWC office, talked to the same woman and told her I was totally in the wrong before.
PART 3
All sounds good, right?
Wrong !! TWC decided to start charging an equipment rental fee for the cable modem - $4.95 per month. Pay the rental or purchase your own modem. (I'm guessing they must be legally allowed to do this on some pretext of "upgrading the service" or something since a quick search on the internet revealed they had already done it in other areas) I purchased my own cable modem for about $80.00 - as a matter of principle and long term economics.
But here's the real kicker - the original modem they supplied was a so-called EMTA type - which I had to keep to use for the digital phone service. (Their digital phone is NOT VOIP - they use their own cable network system - so I was told.) They remotely de-activate the cable internet function on their EMTA modem. I now have a splitter connected to their cable, their original EMTA modem connected to one leg of the splitter and my new modem to the other leg. Naturally, all of my computer stuff connects to the new modem.
It's not all bad though, my new modem has built in WiFi so I got rid of my very old wireless router and now have a much better access to the internet when using a laptop.
EPILOG
Legalese trumps ethics, dollars trump common sense, and corporations rule!
I understand how Jack feels about his Time Warner provider, it really seems to me that the telecom companies are barely legal. I have looked at cell service with Telus, Rogers, AT&T and Verizon and just like SaskTel there is a pitch, there is deception and only the customer is expected to pay up and do the honest thing while these companies fiddle with promotions and double talk.
Guy LaRochelle at Zenon Park has a busy family and several computers accessing the internet here is what he had to say:
Just read your newsletter about Sasktel's high speed internet. I've had issues here with my internet at times being terribly slow. I'm wondering if that is not happening to me. My kids watch Netflix all the time. Maybe Sasktel sees this and cuts my speed back. Sometimes it is so sluggish.
In his next message he went on to say:
I am going to have to pay attention to this. I know for sure that we have kids watching Netflix and another on Facebook, Youtube or something and things do get slow. If that is the case it is bullshit on Sasktel's part especially when they don't tell us this. I've noticed here there are times when I will turn on my hotspot on my cellular and work off it because it is faster. I give them enough money in a month they have to be better than this. Thanks for the heads up.
Guy has seen the same problem I have experienced. I have a laptop connected to SaskTel in the living room and the iPad running WIFI off the Access connection but one day there was a brief Access outage and SaskTel had ground to a halt and I switched on the iPad’s 3G cellular service to get email and read the news.
By the way if you are looking at an iPad, either a full size one or a Mini consider getting the one with the cellular connection. We use our iPad as a GSP, phone book, information service, whatever, we never go on even a short trip without it.
Thanks everyone for the feedback, its great to hear from you.