ITBusiness article: Rogers launches Canada's first LTE service

According to the article, Rogers has rolled-out LTE service in the Ottawa area.

It's looks a little pricey for what you get, compared to Rogers' RocketHub/Stick or Bell's TubroHub/Stick (HSPA+ service). From the article:

The Sierra Wireless modem costs $80 on a three year data plan. The flexible plans start at $45 for 1.5 Gigabytes of data a month and run up to $90 a month for 9 GB of data. The plan automatically shifts subscribers up or down levels depending on their monthly use.

Rogers said customers will see average download speeds of between 12 and 25 Mbps, depending on network congestion and spectrum used.

With RocketHub or TurboHub -- especially with the higher speed SpeedBoost option -- rural home Internet users can get similar performance at a lower price than Rogers' LTE service. The LTE plan seems suitable only if you need high-speed with your mobility plan.

FP article: Rogers to roll out LTE network in Ottawa

The Financial Post recently publish an article reporting on Rogers' deployment of an LTE network in the Ottawa area. LTE -- Long-Term Evolution -- is next (4th) generation mobile voice and data, and promises to be 6-10x faster than current technologies. The LTE service is apparently available immediately.

I wandered over to Rogers website, and sure enough, the LTE Rocket Stick is being offered in the Ottawa area... with delivery sometime this summer. So it looks like the stick is available for pre-order.

The site doesn't get into performance specifics either, other than to say the service will be significantly faster than current HSPA+ networks (which have download speeds of up to 21 Mbps) and will depend on hardware selected.

LTE Rocket Stick hardware costs are $80 for 3-year contract, and $170 with no contract. No word on monthly service package costs.

Hopefully we can find out more later in the summer.

-Chris

Comparison of Bell and Rogers HSPA networks

I've just done an impromptu comparative test of Bell's and Rogers' HSPA services (e.g. Bell Turbo Hub vs. Rogers Rocket Stick -- both the 7Mbps peak HSPA service).

Although not exhaustive, I tried to keep things as similar as possible.

1. The Bell Hub and Rogers Stick were located ~1m apart.
   
2. The tests were performed ~30 seconds apart.
   
3. All tests were performed using testmy.net's Download SmarTest.
   

Key differences include:

1. The Bell Hub was connected through my WinXP PC while the Rogers Stihttp://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gifck was connected to my Vista laptop.
   
2. Rogers are towers are located to the ~2.5km north and ~5km south of my home, while Bell towers are located ~5km east and west of my home.
   

Bell Turbo Hub test results: 3.3 Mbps down

Rogers Rocket Stick test results: 750Kbps down

Click on the 'results' links to see the test details.

I actually ran a numbers of tests; the above results are typical. I saw Rogers range from 63 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps, while Bell never dropped below 2.5 Mbps.

For this morning anyway, and in my immediate area, Bell was way faster than Rogers.

ElectronicBox offers DSL in Ottawa area

According to a reader, the ElectronicBox, which has been around since 1997 (in Quebec), now offers high-speed DSL service in the Ottawa area. They also offer telephone services. Their prices and speeds are somewhat lower than competitors, but they offer up and down data limits that are as good or better than their competitors.

Of course, most rural Ottawa customers can't get DSL. If they could, this blog would likely never have been created. But I'm posting it here since I know that some readers are in areas serviced by DSL.

ITWorldCanada: Clement undercuts defence of usage-based billing

Here's an interesting article from IT World Canada, where Industry Minister Tony Clement weighs-in on usage-based billing (UBB) for independent ISPs.

http://m.itworldcanada.com/story.aspx?id=142632

Trialing Bell's Turbo Hub

So, I finally took the plunge and went out and got myself a Bell Turbo Hub -- specifically a Netgear MBR1210.

For the past couple of months, my 3 Mbps Xplornet service -- which used to average an acceptable 1.4 Mbps down -- has been averaging well below 1 Mbps. In fact, my irregular, random testing shows that the 30-day average download speed was just 440 Kbps. Not good.

As some of you regular readers are aware, I telecommute about 1-2 times per week. My Xplornet speeds, which used to be higher-than-average during working hours, had slowed to the point where work was becoming impacted. Not good.

A call to Xplornet customer service quickly got me to Tier 2 tech support, but other than offering to re-align my antenna to another tower -- at my expense -- there was nothing they could do supposedly. Not good.

I was also concerned about Xplornet's new 'fair-use' (read, throttling) policy coming into effect March 1. Not good.

I figured if I was going to lay-out $125 for an antenna re-alignment, then it wasn't such a big thing to pay $150 for a turbo hub -- or a Rogers Rocket Hub -- depending on what I decided. And the 'slow' service was 7 Mbps peak (although Bell does say that 2-4 Mbps down is typical). I'd been wanting faster service and couldn't get it from Xplornet.

To top it all off, with Bell's flex-plan, my monthly ISP fees could be lower than the $50 per month I'm currently paying to Xplornet. I'm not an online gamer or Netflix user, so I don't expect to go over the 10 GB monthly limit.

I was concerned about signal strength. I mean, my Xplornet antenna is mounted on an 8-foot mast on my roof, while the turbo hub sits on my desk and an external antenna is optional (and Bell doesn't sell the external antennas). Luckily, Bell has a 14-day, 50MB trial, so I could take the turbo hub home and return it is speeds or signal strength weren't acceptable. Good.

I decided to go with Bell -- instead of Rogers -- because of the trial and because as a Bell home phone, long distance, and TV customer, I could bundle the Internet service into my current Bell plan. I figure if Bell's hub doesn't work out, I can still try Rogers, which has towers closer to my house than Bell.

On my way home from work this afternoon, I stopped by the Bell World store in Barrhaven and picked up a Netgear MBR1210 turbo hub. When I got home, I plugged it in and waited for it to boot -- the quick start guide said booting would take approximately 1 minute, which is approximately what it took. After the hub booted, to my delight, the all-important Signal Quality indicator showed solid blue -- excellent coverage. Good.

I plugged by desktop PC into the hub and started doing some tests. My home-grown download speed tester -- the one that gave the 30-day average of 440 Kbps for Xplornet -- averaged 1.2 Mbps and peaked at 3.2 Mbps. Good.

Twice this evening, I ran download tests on TestMy.net, and got 3.95 and 3.49 Mbps respectively. Good.

I also did some web browsing and email downloading. All noticeably faster than lately with Xplornet. Good.

I'd almost blown my 50 MB trial, so I switched back to Xplornet. For comparison, I ran another TestMy.net download speed test, and Xplornet only managed 335 Kbps -- 10x lower than the Bell turbo hub. Not Good.

Another good point for the Netgear MBR1210 turbo hub: among its advanced features is a built-in traffic meter which can be configured to issue warnings and even disconnect if you go over your monthly download limit. Good.

All in all, my first evening with the Bell turbo hub 7 Mbps (max) service has been quite positive and definitely much better than my Xplornet service has been a while. Your mileage may vary.

-Chris

Xplornet Fair Access Policy appears to be changing in 2011

As mentioned by poster FireFox in a comment to my Where is SimplySurf? posting, Xplornet may be making changes to its Fair Access/Traffic Management Policy/ies in early 2011. The changes seem to involve both speed throttling and download caps.

A posting on DSLReports.com provides some info, but I decided to check out what Xplornet has on its website.

I'm an Enhanced Xpress user (3 Mbps down, 3.5 GHz), and when I login to myxplornet, I get the following info on my fair access policy:

Our goal is to ensure that each Xplornet customer receives fair and consistent access to the Internet. A small percentage of customers are responsible for a disproportionate share of data usage on our network. To minimize the impact that heavier users might have on the experience of other Xplornet customers, we have implemented a Fair Access Policy. Our intent with this policy is to affect the fewest customers while helping maintain the best speeds for the majority of customers.

The Fair Access Policy on your service operates only during peak hours (between 8am and 1am local time). During this time, we subject traffic related to applications that are considered non time-sensitive (such as peer-to-peer file sharing, news groups, and online data storage) to a peak transfer speed of 300kbps download and 100kbps upload.

Outside of the Fair Access Policy, the speed you experience on your service is influenced by the design of the equipment. The equipment on your service is designed so that the speed you experience varies on a “per transaction” basis. Each time you begin a new “usage transaction”, such as clicking a link on the web, sending an e-mail, or uploading a file, the initial speed you experience will be the “burst” speed associated with your particular package.

You will continue to experience this burst speed until you reach the “burst limit” for your package. If the transaction isn’t finished when you reach the burst limit, the transaction will be completed at the “Sustained” speed for your package.

Each new usage transaction begins with the burst rate.

During normal web browsing, you will likely find that your transactions are at the burst rate. With larger file downloads/uploads, your transactions will be at a mix of the burst and sustained rates.

They go onto give a table of burst and sustained rates, as well as examples.

For the Xpress service, the throttling info given is:

• Down: Burst: Up to 3.0 Mbps, Burst limit: 3.5 MB, Sustained speed: Up to 700 Kbps
  
• Up: Burst: Up to 600 kbps, Burst limit: 600 KB, Sustained speed: Up to 300 Kbps
  

Basically, for any transaction, once you've downloaded the burst limit at the burst speed, your max speed will be throttled to the sustained speed for the remainder of the transaction.

This is somewhat disturbing. Even though the intention is to throttle heavy users (e.g. people downloading movies or viewing hours of streaming video), the burst limits are so low that they would easily be reached and exceeded in a single transaction.

In the Fair Access Policy that I get, there is no mention of download caps. I'm not sure if caps apply only to satellite users or what.

This all differs from the caps in place by Bell and Rogers, which charge extra if you go over your monthly download cap. Xplornet doesn't seem to be charging extra if you go over-cap, but rather they just slow you down.

Xplornet to provide 4G service

An announcement on Xplornet's website indicates that it is planning to roll-out a 4G network starting this fall (which I guess means now). They don't indicate where they plan to deploy it first.

I could use more speed/bandwidth. 3 Mbps peak is not cutting it, and for the last week or so, the average download speed has been 0.5 Mbps, anytime of day or night.

High-speed comes to Winchester, Avonmore and Apple Hill

According to EMC Manotick-Winchester, high-speed is now available in the Winchester, Avonmore and Apple Hill areas. The high-speed service is being supplied by Xplornet.

Read the article for more info.

CRTC OKs $730M rural broadband, urban rebate plan

The article comes from ITWorldCanada.

"The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications gave approval Tuesday for large phone companies to use $421.9 million set aside in special deferral account funds to bring broadband to 287 rural and remote communities in five provinces in central and western Canada over the next four years."

Click here for the complete article.