Xplornet offers discounts for Storm converts

Today, I received the following message from Xplornet, so I thought I'd pass it along. I am unsure if this discount only applied to Storm subscribers which have already converted, or to future converts as well. If you have any questions about it, I suggest you contact Xplornet directly.

-Chris

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Thank you again for becoming an Xplornet customer. We appreciate your business and look forward to providing you with exceptional services, and support that you deserve.

We understand that your transition from Storm to Xplornet may not have been as smooth as it should have. We would like to apologize for this and thank you for your support and patience

Upon further review of our service package offerings, Xplornet is now able to provide you with an even better value. For you, our Xtreme package has been lowered to $49.99 (a $10/month savings) and our Xpress package to $44.99 (a $5/month savings) when a contract is agreed to. This discount will continue even after your contract expires.

If you have previously agreed to a contract on one of these packages, there is no need to contact us as we will automatically update your account with the new pricing. If you are currently not on a contract, and would like to take advantage of the new pricing, please contact us at telesales@xplornet.com.

Again, on behalf of Xplornet, I apologize and thank you for your patience and understanding. We look forward to continuing to serve you in the future.

Kindest regards,
Allison Lenehan
Chief Marketing Officer

Highspeed Fixed Wireless coming to Kingston Area

This ITWorldCanada article is a little outside the Ottawa area, but I'm posting it here mainly as a general interest article on what is happening in other nearby areas.

http://www.itworldcanada.com/Mobile/ViewArticle.aspx?title=&id=idgml-5aec0a47-ccfd-465d-afca-2d2b6f965e26&format=Print

My Xplornet Update: after 3 weeks

It's now been 3 weeks since I was converted from Storm's wireless internet service to Xplornet's wireless internet service. My last posting generated a lot of comments, so I thought I'd post a follow-up.

During the last 3 weeks, my Xplornet experience has had highs and lows. Here's a summary:

1. My first attempt at technical support was using email to request a second email address. This was resolved within 2 business days.
   
2. My second attempt at getting technical from Xplornet was via phone. I was on-hold for 10-15 minutes without talking to anyone. I hung up.
   
3. Attempt #3 was also by phone. My internet service had been down for 6 hours, so I called to see what was up (or not up). I was on-hold for 10-15 minutes, then got a tier 1 techie who me ran through her script, which involved disconnecting my router, messing with my PC's config, and several reboots, none of which resolved the issue. She transferred me to tier 2 support, where I was placed on-hold for another 15 minutes or so. During this time, I power-cycled both my router and the Xplornet modem, and got connectivity. So I hung up.
   
4. Another email to technical support was also responded to within 48 hours, although the answer was useless. I was complaining about intermittent connection drops and stalls (which affected my connectivity and thus my productivity while I was connected to my customer's network), and the guy said I had to call them while it was happening. Given the short duration of the problems, and the long on-hold times of Xplornet's tech support, I've so far declined to call them on it.
   
5. The latest call to technical support was very interesting. I was only on-hold for a couple of minutes when I got to talk to someone who didn't even attempt to walk me through a script. I was complaining that my 5 Mbps service had been giving sustained speeds of 400-900 Kbps, which made it worse than the sustained rates I was getting on my 3 Mbps Storm service. The guy checked a few things, put me on-hold for a minute, and then came back to tell me that the tower servicing my radio didn't support 5 Mbps. This struck me as odd, so I asked him why this wasn't identified once my radio was installed and they knew what tower would be providing service; he didn't know the answer. What he did do was set my service to 3 Mbps and credit the difference back to my account. BTW, my radio is pointed at the tower behind the city of Ottawa's client services centre on Roger Stevens Drive in North Gower.
   
6. A funny thing is that reducing my service to 3 Mbps seems to have resolved the intermittent problems that I had experienced, and I actually got a higher sustained download rate of ~1.2 Mbps. Today, I was logged into a customer's network for ~7 hours without any connectivity problems from my end, and the VoIP call that I had going simultaneously for ~7 hours only experienced one short stutter (which is a vast improvement in the quality of the same VoIP client's calls over Storm's network).
   
7. You might have noticed that we've had a lot of heavy rain and fog in Ottawa lately. The Xplornet service seems stable enough in bad weather, comparable to Storm.
   

My overall grade for Xplornet so far is 6.5/10, mostly because of problems and delays that I've had with their tech support. The wait times are too long, and I was disappointed with the "5 Mbps on a 3 Mbps tower" scenario. At this point, I'm going to stay with Xplornet but am glad that I've only signed a one-year contract. A friend of mine in Carp has had Xplornet 3 Mbps service for several months now, and says he likes the service.