Rogers Rocket Hub
Someone told me about Rogers Rocket Hub offering, which allows to you to connect up to 10 PCs into a home network and, if you want, add in your home phone as well. There are flexible rate plans based on your data usage and whether or not you want to have voice services as well.
Although the above web page doesn't give maximum download and upload rates, if you poke around on Rogers' mobile Internet site, the maximum speeds seem to be 7.2 Mbps down and 5.7 Mbps up. It's on Rogers' HSPA 3.5G wireless network.
This all looks very good (e.g. faster peak speeds for less than I'm paying now). Does anyone out there have any details on this service? I know a few people have told me that Rogers Rocket stick is quite good, and this offering seems to be built around the same service.
-Chris
Although the above web page doesn't give maximum download and upload rates, if you poke around on Rogers' mobile Internet site, the maximum speeds seem to be 7.2 Mbps down and 5.7 Mbps up. It's on Rogers' HSPA 3.5G wireless network.
This all looks very good (e.g. faster peak speeds for less than I'm paying now). Does anyone out there have any details on this service? I know a few people have told me that Rogers Rocket stick is quite good, and this offering seems to be built around the same service.
-Chris
posted by Chris Spencer at 10:25 am
27 comments
27 Comments:
OK, my bad. Someone did previously comment on Rogers Rocket Hub. See the comment dated February 8, 2010 in posting Opinions on Mobile Internet.
If that anonymous poster could provide an update, that would be great.
I just picked one of the new model (NetComm 3G10WVR) Rocket Hubs this week.
I live about 6km outside of Metcalfe and have been stuck with Xplornet. That service at the best of times will give 2.8Mbps/download and 0.5Mbps/upload, but I find it isn't consistent enough as sometimes my download is as low as 0.4Mbps and the latency makes PS3 gaming really suffer.
With the Rocket Hub the best spot in my house is on a shelf in a 2nd story bedroom (2 out of 5 bars) and anywhere else in the house is 1 bar. The speeds I'm getting are similar to the Xplornet but slightly less @ 2.1Mbps/download and 0.5Mbps/upload.
Only had it running for 2 days but the thing I like is the consistency. So far never any slower speeds. PS3 gaming, I've never been dropped from a server where with Xplornet sometimes I'd only get in 1 full game in 3 hours of play.
I also believe there may be an option for an external antenna which should only help.
So not the speeds that are promised, at least not in my rural area but if you get at least 2 bars you're getting a consistent connection. I have 15 days to try and return if I don't like it so I'll post again in a week and let you know how it went.
Well, after the 15 days I've decided to keep the Rocket Hub. It does not (in my rural area) provide anywhere close to the speeds advertised. I would say my average download speed is 1.3Mbps and upload is 0.4Mbps. But it is consistent and I was only dropped from PS3 gaming once.
I spoke with Rogers tech support and it was suggested I get a High Gain Directional Antenna which should boost the signal and increase the speeds.
Also note that it will support at best 2 multimedia access at a time (gaming & YouTube).
So many limitations but when it's that or Xplornet, I'll take the slower speeds & consistency.
Geo in Metcalfe...
I (and many other readers I'm sure) would be interested in hearing how things go with the high gain antenna.
For myself here between Manotick and Kars, I'm actually getting pretty good speeds with Xplornet... especially during daytime when I'm working from home and need speed the most. Evening speeds are wildly variable, perhaps depending on website or shared bandwidth.
-Chris
Hi Chris,
First off, great blog you are running here. Ive kept an eye on it for some time and always found it informative.
Im located in West Carleton / Carp and since 2006 I have been a SimplySurf subscriber since they were the first to deploy in our neighbourhood. The service wasnt always the best and technical support was always a nightmare with them. Anyways - things were fine up until the end of May here, and the one day the towers started dropping off the network to the point where I had no connectivity for 4 or 5 days.
After leaving them numerous voice messages, I finally caved and and drove to their office location at lunch to find an emptied out office building with a nasty looking notice from Ottawa hydro stuck in the door. Not good.
Anyways - suffice it to say that I have not been able to contact them over email, phone or fax since the end of May and am searching for a new provider for service.
Seems that the choices arent all that great .
1) Xplornet is the logical choice, but they have a 3 year contract required and their network shaping policy of cutting the connection speed to 20-30% of the advertised speeds after ~30 seconds of transfer regardless of how busy the network actually is seems very un-broadband to me.
2) Rogers / Bell WiMAX : You have mentioned this service on the blog here a few times and it does seem like it might fit the bill. Looking around on other net access forums seems to turn up a number of unhappy customers (and a lot in the Ottawa area due to tower overloading) that seems to indicate that this technology is already on the way out the door and that new improvements on this service are coming.
3) Rocket Hub. One of the neighbors (also ex-SimplySurf) has this device and seems quite pleased with it. The RocketHub makes me leery is the low bandwith caps on the service. I do use the connection for work and sometimes that means downloading large software images for testing and I think I would burn through 10 gb pretty quickly.
If anyone else has any experience with any of these 3 services recently - it would be appreciated.
Probably like everyone else reading this site, I just wish for the day that Bell upgrades the phone infrastructure in my neighbourhood and makes DSL a possibility. Until then I will have to choose one of the flawed solutions and deal with the flakiness of wireless.
Thanks for listening. :)
Fox
Hey Firefox.
Thanks for the info on SimplySurf. Doesn't sound good.
As for other options, I've been with Xplornet for almost 2 years (and with Storm and Arryba before that)... but you know that if you've been reading my blog. I had a few bumps with Xplornet in the first few months I was with them, but since getting their 3.5GHz, 3Mbps service, I've been pretty happy. I do work from home at least one day a week, and download speeds haven't really been an issue. Just today, I downloaded 25 MB in ~1 minute, which consider I had two PCs using my connection at the time is pretty good (in my opinion). I'm not sure how big your software images are; I can understand your concerns if they're bigger than 100 MB. BTW, I never signed a 3-yr contract with Xplornet; I originally signed a 1-yr contract with them, but since that expired, I've been going month-to-month -- same monthly costs. And as far as I know, no download limits (i.e. GB/month).
Roger's Rocket Hub has gotten a few good reviews here on my blog, plus I spoke with someone from Renfrew who was very happy with it. The download limits might be problematic if your software image downloads are large. You'd have to determine that for yourself.
I did try Bell's Sympatico Unplugged but couldn't get a strong enough signal here in Manotick/Kars.
Let me know what you choose, and how it goes. I'm sure lots of readers would be very interested.
-Chris
I also live in West Carleton and use SimplySurf. Service is extremely unreliable and support/service is non existent. I can live with the occasional outage, but no service at all is not acceptable. One of my neighbours, who was also using SimplySurf, got feed up and dropped them. Problem is that he couldn’t contact them to tell them he had switched to Xplornet, he just had to cancel the monthly payments. From what I hear about Xplornet, not sure they’re a better option. I am just waiting for a better solution and I’ll drop SimplySurf too, just can’t wait.
PA
Hey PA,
Depending on signal strengths in your exact area, Xplornet or Rogers Rocket Hub may be your best options, at least based on comments made on this blog in the last 6-8 months. Rogers seems to have steady speeds but has download limits. Xplornet has no limits but their speeds may be more bursty. I haven't had much feedback on Bell's wireless service, so I can't comment one way or the other on it.
-Chris
I live in Rockland outside of cable or DSL alternatives. I found Explornet expensive. After complaining to Rogers last winter about lack of 3G service at my home (which is in sight of their tower!)they fixed that issue. A few months ago Rogers announced tethering was available so I connected up my Iphone and voila ~2Mbps service. Appetite whetted for high-speed when the phone is gone, I looked into the Rogers Hub. I chose it because it was $5 month or so cheaper than Bell, and I was already a customer. Because of the large demand I got on a waiting list. A couple of weeks later in mid-July I got the call and picked it up. I have the new white, wide, rabbit-ear Netcomm version rather than the black tall Ericsson version. Installation was very simple and for the most part it was plug in, log-on, and surf. (Because my desktop had been hardwired to a Linksys router with a few custom settings, it took an hour or so of tinkering to reset it to hardwire with the Netcomm. My printer, iPhone, and laptop each were connected in under a minute.)
During the day I'll get downspeeds up to 4Mbps and upspeeds to 2 Mbps. During the evening I'll get 2Mbps down and 1Mbps up. Latency varies from 50 to 300 ms. I normally have 3G and High signal strength lights lit. A few times with very slow internet response I have switched the Netcomm power off/on and it rebooted and cleared in a couple of minutes with no problem. I also had some initial teething pains with the two ethernet connection ports (printer/desktop) suddenly not recognizing a connection, light off, then magically connecting and lighting up again. This hasn't recurred in a while. I do not expect to reach the 3G/month limit which is part of the basic Hub plan. I also continue to tether on my laptop as I have the 6G/month iPhone plan available, plus signal strength to the Netcomm drops off pretty quickly after 30 feet or so. I am not a gamer so can't comment on how the Hub works with those requirements. I considered switching my home phone to the Hub. I decided against it because of several issues with my burglar alarm (power outages disable calls to monitoring station; would require rewiring at telephone junction box so alarm system retains outgoing call priority) and loss of my long-distance calling plan. Overall I am quite satisfied with the improvement in service from 44Kbps dial-up. Reasonable speed for a reasonable price considering the alternatives.I recommend checking out Rogers or Bell Hubs for those in the wireless coverage areas.
Update - I've installed a high gain (directional) antenna with the Rocket Hub (NetComm version). It has definitely helped. I now get 3-4 bars (out of 5) with an RSCP around -84dBm.
What does this mean. Well, a test at speedtest.net gives an average of around 3.1 Mbps download & 2.0 Mbps upload (really impressed with the improve to upload speeds). The ping is consistent between 90 - 120 ms. This greatly improves both surfing and PS3 gaming. No dropped games or lag.
If you are going with the Rocket Hub in the rural area like myself, I would suggest the high gain antenna as it has made our signal much better and consistent. Use the cell tower map (http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html) to find the nearest tower to point to.
Thanks for the site. I'll now keep it as one of the sites I visit to keep up to date (and share information) on rural Internet in the Ottawa area.
Hi Chris,
I'm just down the road from you - Century Road East almost near Second Line South. For those not from the area - between Kars and Manotick.
I've had the hub since January. I ditched Xplornet and could not be happier! I know you had great speeds with them but they couldn't help me out - even with a 60ft TV tower already on my property. I went with every version of Line of Sight, and finally back to Satellite. Speeds sucked and were inconsistent. My poor kids could no longer play online gaming. Can you believe the humanity of such a thing?!
Anyways - have become a HUGE fan of the hub. I average between 3-6 Mb down and 1.5-3 MB up. Fantastic little device. I have it in my basement with an small external whip antenna attached to my attic vent on my bungalow's roof.
Like you, I work from home mostly and am a heavy user of data. I'll tell you what I don't miss about Xplornet - throttling and data caps. I can now load my large GPS updates to my iPhone (always over 1gb in size). I don't have to think about "How much have I downloaded today? Will I get FAP'd?" Having the extra phone line as part of the plan is bonus. We may still get rid of Bell but haven't yet as there is something about a POTS, on copper, always being alive that gives me peace of mind at night.
If you want to come on over and check it out sometime, just let me know and we can arrange a visit.
If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask.
Cheers,
Darryl
Wow great info, Im running the netcom 3g10wvr, I was think of setting up a external high gain antenna or whip Im not getting about Received Signal Code Power(RSCP): -92 dBm Im about 10k to cell tower any ideas on a place to purchase one of them?
Thanks
I'm just outside of Ashton.
Bell has confirmed that it has oversold their Wimax service, and has since June not been signing on new customers.
The alternatives are Xplornet or Bell/Rogers Turbo/Rocket Hub.
Needing 20GB a month, both their prices are literally insane, between $160 and $210 a month.
AFAIK, Xplornet doesn't have any monthly download limits. But it's not as fast (peak) as Bell/Rogers HSPA+ networks. I've been with Xplornet for 2 years, and other than some initial issues in the first few months, my service has been trouble-free since then. You might want to check Xplornet's website.
-Chris
Great information on this blog! I am not from Ottawa, but in New Brunswick, Xplorenet has caps on data and you are very restricted. For $5.00 more I got the Rogers Hub with a phone line and I am going to try it tonight....they could not get me the newer model, but I am willing to get an antenna to boost signal...hoping for the best.
Xplorenet was the worst service I have ever encountered. I used them for 10 long years.
Tech support people were rude and unhelpful, and the daily download cap was infuriating at best.
They came out with these "restore tokens" which show up, but do not work in Canada.
The service with only 300mb per day download cap (8 youtube videos and you're spent) and bad customer support will run you over $120.00 per month!
The Rogers hub is $80.00 a month for the same service, and includes a home phone line.
My first two days of the Rogers hub have been frustrating. When I connect my laptop to the hub it knocks out internet connection and I keep having to reset the modem.
I am going to ring tech support and see if there is anything that can be done. The external antennas will add another $200.00 for the price of the service if you buy a good one.
@Wolfmaan
If you had Xplornet for 10 years, then I suspect you had their satellite internet service. I can't comment on that.
In my experience over the past two years, Xplornet's fixed wireless service is pretty good. And I've always found their customer support staff to be polite and helpful (even if the Tier 1 support reps are often obviously following a script). I'm not aware of any download cap; I've on occasion downloaded files over 500 MB without issue.
-Chris
Hi Chris,
Thought I would drop by and follow up on my SimplySurf migration.
After weighing all the options available, I decided to take a shot on the Rogers Portable Internet service since I was able to acquire an external modem for the service second hand for next to nothing and I could sign up for the service without any contract (other than the typical 30 day cancellation notice).
I talked to lots of neighbours who signed up with Explornet, and they seemed happy enough with it - but they had the same typical internet access complaints -- good during the day and then it gets sluggish and slow in the evenings. I was able to bring my laptop over to a neigbours house to try it out a few times, and yes it seemed good in the afternoon, but the evening speeds were pretty bas -- way worse than SimplySurf. The 3 year contract and throttling to 600 kbps after 30 seconds of download were the nails in the coffin for me. Do you know if you have the 3.65 Ghz regulated modem for your explornet service ? I think that this is what explornet refers to as their "Enhanced" service and its not clear in their terms of service if the throttling applies on this service.
Long story short, I was able to get the Rogers modem talking with one of the local towers at a decent signal strength and have been running it since the beginning of August. It started out decent enough (again, slower in the evening for sure) and had a hiccup in the middle of the month. Then it seems that something changed on Sept 1st and its been quite usable since. Its pretty good for a VPN connection for work during the day and I have downloaded some larger files in the early AM at the rated 2mbps. Works for me, and while SimplySurf was cheaper $-wise, the Rogers connection is more reliable.
I would have preferred the RocketHub solution, but the download limits would have been tight for my family I think, add in the contract and higher startup cost, and I decided to take a chance on the older tech.
Thanks for listening.
Fox
I'm running 3.5 Ghz Xplornet wireless for just over a year. Was on their top package spending $100 a month. Needed the speed as I work from home approx 2 times a week and I deal with large files. But truly in all my years of internet service Xplornet quality is just simply terrible. So inconsistent. I have called many times and talked to tier1, tier2, and tier3 tech support. Although very nice and friendly people nobody could give me any real answers to the wild inconsistencies I was getting. The most common answer was overloaded tower. So I downgraded my package and receive an additional monthly rebate as nobody could figure out my issue. I'm in Orono perched high up on a hill above the surrounding trees. I have a line of site to three high speed towers. So you would think I would be the ideal candidate. But ping times are so erratic that getting consistent speeds is next to impossible. I now drive into work more often because the network is unreliable. Only time I can get a clean connection is usually after 1am or first thing in the morning. As for gamers...just forget about it. Nasty, nasty lag spikes that come and go. The one good thing I can say for Xplornet is the no cap limit...that's the only thing worth mentioning. Like I said above I move large files back and forth for work....so Bell and Rogers would be expensive as I would easily go over their bandwidth limits. So I sit and painfully wait for a new company or better service to come my way....and I hope it comes SOON!
I live west of Ottawa and after hearing the horror stories of Xplornet I went with a Rocket Hub. I was told by the salespeople that there was a $50 maximum over usage fee and I knew my usage patterns were in line with around 70GB/month so I worked it out that it was the best deal. After 3 months I've now received a letter from Rogers telling me that my usage is unacceptable and if I continue my service will be terminated. I just wanted to post this as a warning to any others that were thinking that the Rocket Hub would be an acceptable home internet solution in rural areas, because it certainly if you're a power user.
Thanks Mark good to know!!! The Rogers Hub was an option I was considering especially hearing about the $50 over usage fee. "Over usage" fee for a limited time only I guess? After spending $350 for a hook up for Xplornet I certainly would hate to switch only to get the boot after a few short months. I think I'm going to have to move back to the city :)
Like so many on this forum, I too am an ex-SimplySurf customer. What a waste of what would have been a leader in wireless in west Carleton. The service call response was the worst it could have been but the the mesh technology worked extremely well.
When I lost my access point, the neighbor moved and took his CB tower with him, I was forced to start from Scratch. I fist tried Bell's hub and then the stick but even though the signal was there the latency was so bad it made it unusable. I was having ping rates to Montreal of 800ms.
I then called xPlorenet. I talked to the rep on the phone and asked some specific questions as to where the towers were that services Corkery, what frequencies they were equipped to handle and what the subscription rate for each one was. She was very informative and informed me that the 900 and 2.4 in the area were at full capacity but that the 3.5 had some room still. She also said there were no immediate plans to upgrade the equipment to handle more subscribers.
I then called the installer she recommended and arranged for a site survey. I was amazed that it consisted of a guy strolling about my roof with a 900mhz antenna in his hand. This of course allowed him to tell me that there wasn't a strong signal. Gee, I could have told him that. He had no pole and not much of anything else with him. He called his boss..and the reply was that his boss would call me. Huh ?
So, I got the call. He recommended that I put a 10 foot tripod on my roof and 30 ft of mast above it which made the cable run about 75 feet. This should cost about $1200 in his estimate. I asked for a proper site survey from which he could give me stats on the quality of signal and that I wanted to be on the 3.5ghz tower only. Then he proceeded to tell me that if they came to test this system and got a signal they would continue with the installation regardless. You can guess where xPlorenet rates now.
End result I tested Rogers 3g hub ( NetComm 3G10WVR ) and was pleased with the initial signal strength and ping rate ( now 140ms compared to bell's 800) so I signed up for their flex plan. I then added 50 feet of low loss antenna cable, an enclosed yagi antenna from the Source on a home made 10 foot mast that I inserted in SimplySurf's installed used bell dish arm and my signal strength is maxed out, the ping is 60ms.
My hardware including the hub, antenna, cable and galvanized pipe is less than $500. My monthly bill starts at $35 and won't go above the max of $60.
So when I am less active on the internet I don't pay for it and I don't have to stay ip till 3 in the morning to use xPlorenet.
If anyone finds Shadi, tell him he blew a perfect opportunity and to quit trying to bill me for a service I haven't had in 4 months.
I have owned a Rogers RocketHub, the Ericsson W35 version, for seven months. To those who wish to purchase either the Rogers or the Bell variant, be aware that they currently have an issue where you lose Internet connectivity sporadically. Voice communications is not affected.
There appears to be a problem with either the firmware or the cellular network, or both. There is no official acknowledgement from Rogers that this problem exists. Apparently Bell has an open ticket on the issue without making any statements on when/if resolution is coming.
See the Ericsson forum website: http://fwt.ericsson.net/index.php for extensive reporting of the details and of user problems with the W35 device.
skinorth
We're located near Dunrobin. I got a Rogers NetComm Rocket Hub -- Rogers say they're discontinuing the Ericsson W35.
With 3 bars, we did achieve HSPDA/HSPA/EDGE connectivity so RF-wise, it looked good.
Sadly, the speed was slower than dial-up. Speeds in the up-direction were as low as 8 Kbps. The down direction maxed out at about 20 Kbps.
I spent some time with Rogers tech support, (a Canadian person) who told me the "there is significant data congestion in Southern Ontario [on the 3G network]". He was not surprised with my speed results.
The wireless data signals also dropped out rather often, with huge data dropouts lasting many seconds.
= = =
My next-door neighbor has a Bell Ericsson W35 Hub and is getting a solid 3 Mbps (and above) up and down, both in Dunrobin and at their cottage near White Lake.
My concern with the Bell service is there is no cap on charges -- $60 gives you 10 GB, then, $15.00/GB thereafter -- with no maximum dollar cap!
Bell does have a datastick service available with unlimited data use but that costs ca. $500.00 per month (whether one uses one or 100 GB).
Hi, a bit late for comments, but here's my experience...
I have the Netcomm 3g10wvr from Rogers. The service is quite good for me. Last year I was located in the rural region of Quebec city and 3G connection was great.
One thing I discovered lately from Rogers: When going over 10G of data, they will charge you 10$/G after that. But they will only charge you for 5 more Gigs... After that, it is unlimited... I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had been charged 15G when I had used 18G in a month...
I talked to Rogers about that to validate if I would have a big surprise and they confirmed me that they do not advertise it but the max charged will be only for 15G total... That means that my plan (data+phone) is costing 125$/month maximum...
So now I use Netflix a lot, and never worry about cost :)
Hi, I realize my comments are also outdated but thought I would share my experience all the same.
I live in the Corkery area of Carp and was too, a Simply Surf customer, or rather, victim. When they discontinued their service I decided to try the Rogers Rocket Hub (3G10WVR). At the risk of jinxing myself, I am pleased to say that I have had a great experience with the Hub since I started using it in August of 2010. I frequently stream tv shows with no issue and interruptions are rare. This is contrary to my experience with Simply Surf where the connection was very slow, unreliable and frequently inexistant, despite the rooftop receiver. I did not buy any other equipment to boost the signal to my Hub (signal strength has only ever been medium) and it still works better than what I had.
I pay approx. $53/month (tax, fees in) for 5GB and then sometimes I end up paying $70 for the next tier up. I don't mind the higher cost compared to Simply Surf because the service and connection is simply much better. I highly recommend the Hub.
We arrived in Almonte last year and were facing the internet problem as well. So after shopping around all the companies i opted for the rocket hub. the first months were not that great, mainly because of poor signal quality. after buiding my own antenna, dirt cheap, we were able to gain a steady signal of about 75% strength almost all the time. still the advertised transfer rate was far from being reached. we live only 2.3 km from the tower. Anyways, i frequently test my bandwith pass and never exceeded 2500 upload or download. Still we have been using it for a year now and are satisfied with this service for now but are definetly hoping to get read high speed interned in the future. Looking at the service availability map i noticed that they now offer 4g in our sector. i am gonna call roger soon and asked them if my w35 can be upgraded to 4g. that would be nice! keep up the good blog, after reading you all, i realized that i had inadvetly made the right choice after all!
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