[DrBoomBotz]

For cell phone I have a doro and an older motorola both from rogers - can either of these be unlocked or do I need a different cell phone?

The phones can probably be unlocked but since they are not smartphones they won't work with Fongo.

[castoridae]

New question about wifi usage:
Rogers speaks in gigabites. I get 20 GB per month,and used 11 Gb one month as the most ever used
Teksavy speaks in Mbps
How do I translate to tell which pkg I would choose from them or any other place??

[robsteve]

Yeah, I want to completely cut away from them altogether. It may be politic to do this one service at a time.
I have 5 tvs - 2 are flat planel. One is connected to their 'VIP' service box, the others have that special box to convert from analog (straight cable) to digital. Two of these are tube tvs.
I'm wondering how I get them all connected when I go with a other service?

You can go to over the air for your TVS. You might be surprised how many channels you can get. It all depends on your location. If you use a good roof antenna mounted either on the roof or in your attic, it can be connected to your existing cable to distribute it to the TVS. If you are not handy with this type of stuff, you might want to search some of the AV forums for OTA installer suggestions. The Antenna, bit and pieces come to $300-$500.

I have been playing with OTA, since I cut the cable cord in the spring. I am no where near the USA, so just get three of the Canadian networks, CTV, CBC, and Global. They are all HD and the HD is actually a bit better than the HD from cable. You can even get a set top box that has a PVR.



Posted via CB10

[robsteve]

New question about wifi usage:
Rogers speaks in gigabites. I get 20 GB per month,and used 11 Gb one month as the most ever used
Teksavy speaks in Mbps
How do I translate to tell which pkg I would choose from them or any other place??

You may be comparing apples with oranges. One may be your download allotment or quota, the other the max download speed.

[DrBoomBotz]

New question about wifi usage:
Rogers speaks in gigabites. I get 20 GB per month,and used 11 Gb one month as the most ever used
Teksavy speaks in Mbps
How do I translate to tell which pkg I would choose from them or any other place??

The Rogers number refers to how much data you can download per month.
The Teksavvy number refers to how fast you can download it per second.
In both cases more is better.

kilo=thousand
mega=million
giga=billion

bit=1 or 0
byte=8 bits
b=bit
B=byte
MB=megabyte measures the quantity of data.
GB=gigabye=1000 MB's (technically 1024)
Mb=megabit=1 million bits

*Mbps=megabits per second(the quantity of data per second)

To compare services you should know.
How much data they will let you download per month, usually in GB's.
How fast they allow you to download, usually in Mbps.
How fast they allow you to upload, usually in Mbps sometimes in Kbps.

Tekavvy's website can help you have a rough idea what those numbers mean in terms of movies and pictures.

[tovento]

Which Rogers package are you on?? Would give us the opportunity to decode what your current plan is, and what package at TekSavvy would be equivalent. As for regular TVs, unless you start hooking things up to the internet via Apple TV or similar set-top box, you basically have three options for watching TV channels: Rogers, Bell or Antenna. I'm not sure how well antenna works for multiple TVs, and you are limited to 12-20 channels. So antenna may work, but it depends on what you are planning to watch. If you watch specialty channels, you may be stuck with Rogers or Bell unfortunately.

[castoridae]

Which Rogers package are you on?? Would give us the opportunity to decode what your current plan is, and what package at TekSavvy would be equivalent. As for regular TVs, unless you start hooking things up to the internet via Apple TV or similar set-top box, you basically have three options for watching TV channels: Rogers, Bell or Antenna. I'm not sure how well antenna works for multiple TVs, and you are limited to 12-20 channels. So antenna may work, but it depends on what you are planning to watch. If you watch specialty channels, you may be stuck with Rogers or Bell unfortunately.

The Rogers wifi pkg I have is:
Hi speed lite pkg
Usage allowance = 20 Gigs
Download speed = 6 Mbps
Upload speed = up to 256 Kbps
Price = $44.49

[anon(5597702)]

I use high speed DSL 6 (300 gb b/w allowance) for $32.99 mth + tax. Works very nicely for me. $6 less gets you 75 gb, $7 more gives you unlimited. (That's in my area at least.)

[Cynycl]

Being in Canada and especially in the liberal mess of a province Ontario, you just need to get used to the fact that your options are limited, none of them are very good and in the end if you want internet, you are going to get screwed over.

[anon(5597702)]

Being in Canada and especially in the liberal mess of a province Ontario, you just need to get used to the fact that your options are limited, none of them are very good and in the end if you want internet, you are going to get screwed over.

...or just get Teksavvy.

[Cynycl]

...or just get Teksavvy.

they are more expensive than the other providers in my area.

[DrBoomBotz]

I use high speed DSL 6 (300 gb b/w allowance) for $32.99 mth + tax. Works very nicely for me. $6 less gets you 75 gb, $7 more gives you unlimited. (That's in my area at least.)

I guess the next step is to see what options are available in your postal code.

You probably have DSL and cable options available.
If you choose cable it will require a bit more coordination to transition your services.

When I left Rogers they sent a technician on the weekend without any warning to do an on site inspection the day before the scheduled cut-over.
I was 10 miles away from home doing errands when a sub contractor from some company I had never heard of called my buzzer number from the lobby. My buzzer number rings my cellphone and that is the only reason that I knew anything about the inspection.
I did not believe that Rogers would send a tech at anytime without calling ahead so declined to buzz him in.
As a result I went without internet for over a week.

[DrBoomBotz]

they are more expensive than the other providers in my area.

Which ones are cheaper?

[Cynycl]

Which ones are cheaper?

Cogeco was the cheapest when I switched over from Bell. In the armpit of Ontario I could only get a Bell speed of 5mb/s, which meant I actually got about 2 mb/s. Also had some ridiculous b/w cap. Between the phone and crappy internet Bell was raping me $120.00 per month. When I switched to cable 30mb/s plan, 275 gb b/w cap and cable phone it dropped to $82.00 per month for the first year. Now I'm out of that promo plan and it jumped back up to $115.00 per month. But I don't run over my bandwidth cap and I consistently get download speeds of 20+ mb/s.

I've looked around and there is no competiton in the Windsor area that can match the speed or b/w cap for the same price. Internet alone is $63.95 a months plus Provincial gouging. I should just cancel the telemarketer service, that would save me another $40.00 but I can't order pizza online yet.

All in all, what Canadians get charged for internet compared to the rest of the world is downright criminal.

[DrBoomBotz]

Cogeco was the cheapest when I switched over from Bell. In the armpit of Ontario I could only get a Bell speed of 5mb/s, which meant I actually got about 2 mb/s. Also had some ridiculous b/w cap. Between the phone and crappy internet Bell was raping me $120.00 per month. When I switched to cable 30mb/s plan, 275 gb b/w cap and cable phone it dropped to $82.00 per month for the first year. Now I'm out of that promo plan and it jumped back up to $115.00 per month. But I don't run over my bandwidth cap and I consistently get download speeds of 20+ mb/s.

I've looked around and there is no competiton in the Windsor area that can match the speed or b/w cap for the same price. Internet alone is $63.95 a months plus Provincial gouging. I should just cancel the telemarketer service, that would save me another $40.00 but I can't order pizza online yet.

By telemarketer service you mean telephone and you are paying $40 a month?
If so there are much less expensive options.

[Cynycl]

By telemarketer service you mean telephone and you are paying $40 a month?
If so there are much less expensive options.

I know but I had to "bundle" it to get the intial promo price. If there was any real competition down here I'd be jumping ship now that the promo deal is over.

[DrBoomBotz]

I know but I had to "bundle" it to get the intial promo price. If there was any real competition down here I'd be jumping ship now that the promo deal is over.

So I guess you can't really cancel the phone then?

[Cynycl]

So I guess you can't really cancel the phone then?

Well I could now that the promo is over but the wife won't let me. I only ever call the pizza guy

[castoridae]

they are more expensive than the other providers in my area.

This is part of my research and I am learning here that even different housing type can impact on service delivery,
so to re-clarify for everyone helping me on this: I live in downtown Toronto, in a house, not a condo.

[robsteve]

Well I could now that the promo is over but the wife won't let me. I only ever call the pizza guy

I don't know if they offer it there or if you are a Rogers customer, but here in Atlantic Canada, Rogers will port your home phone to a home phone they provide. I assume it works on cellular, as Rogers only has cellular here, no cable or telephone. I see they offer it in Ontario, but don't show a price without a postal code. It is $9.99 for Nova Scotia if you have an existing Rogers account.

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wirelesshomephone

[DrBoomBotz]

Well I could now that the promo is over but the wife won't let me. I only ever call the pizza guy

You pay $480 a year for a voip phone from Cogeco when you could be paying $60 to Fongo.
I think you must make more money than I do .

[Cynycl]

You pay $480 a year for a voip phone from Cogeco when you could be paying $60 to Fongo.
I think you must make more money than I do .

Possibly, but I don't pay for a cell phone so I don't have to factor in that expense.

[castoridae]

Cogeco was the cheapest when I switched over from Bell. In the armpit of Ontario I could only get a Bell speed of 5mb/s, which meant I actually got about 2 mb/s. Also had some ridiculous b/w cap. Between the phone and crappy internet Bell was raping me $120.00 per month. When I switched to cable 30mb/s plan, 275 gb b/w cap and cable phone it dropped to $82.00 per month for the first year. Now I'm out of that promo plan and it jumped back up to $115.00 per month. But I don't run over my bandwidth cap and I consistently get download speeds of 20+ mb/s.

I've looked around and there is no competiton in the Windsor area that can match the speed or b/w cap for the same price. Internet alone is $63.95 a months plus Provincial gouging. I should just cancel the telemarketer service, that would save me another $40.00 but I can't order pizza online yet.

All in all, what Canadians get charged for internet compared to the rest of the world is downright criminal.

There was a CBC documentary on this a few months ago. Its not just communications services, its food, clothing, books (remember the squawk about the US/Can book prices, even Canadian-authored books?),
everything.
However, apart from that h3ll we live in,
I'm still trying to cut costs by trying to not get ripped off even more by Rogers, Bell, etc and looking here to see if there are alternatives.
I'm starting with the wifi and cell phone, cause I'm pretty sure I can get the same or better elsewhere (ie: not Rogers).
After that, I'll look into land phone and tv, although, given the discussion here so far, it looks like I may have to just suck it up and keep Rogers for those.

[Cynycl]

May have to look at that Fongo thing. Never heard of it before you mentioned it.

Thanks

[Cynycl]

You pay $480 a year for a voip phone from Cogeco when you could be paying $60 to Fongo.
I think you must make more money than I do .

Do you use Fongo for a home phone?