News, notes, commentaries, and discussions related to high-speed (broadband) Internet access in rural Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and surrounding areas.
This purpose of this weblog is to track news and events related to high-speed (broadband) Internet access in the rural areas of Ottawa and, to a lesser extent, in nearby townships.
On Friday, Nov 6, the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada approved SpaceX's Starlink program. SpaceX is targeting late 2020 to launch for services in the northern U.S. and Canada.
For more info, see the following CTV News article:
Also, check out Starlink's website:
posted by Chris Spencer at 1:29 pm
0 comments
In this COVID-19 era, high-speed Internet access is even more critical. The Feds are targeting 2026 for having 98% of all Canadians iwth high-speed access, as part of the Universal Broadband Fund. See CTV News article for more info:
posted by Chris Spencer at 1:23 pm
0 comments
posted by Chris Spencer at 1:49 pm
17 comments
said...
I've chatted with Fido about this offering and unfortunately it's a cable based offering. So basically, their area of availability is the same as rogers. :(
Chris Spencer said...
Then the flyer is misleading, as it has a wireless symbol on it. Oh well.
said...
Misleading indeed! They seem to just be referring to the modem including an embedded router that supports Wi-Fi...just like most other modems you get from the major ISPs.
Unknown said...
I live just west of Stittsville, the Fido, Kodoo and Virgin home internets are all cable based. None of them are available in the rural areas around Ottawa.
Expatbak said...
I live west of Stittsville too... I have xplornet and it is proving very unreliable. Are there other options?
Unknown said...
Check Omnitech, I have them coming in on Sat to test the speed and availabilty. I'll post back with results.
So far I have been pretty frustrated with everyone we have tried (Bell - No service, Xplorenet - slow expensive, Storm - No service, Fido, Koodo, Virgin - all rely on bell
Unknown said...
Very curious how Omnitech worked out. I just checked out their packages and they look really appealing. I'm with Storm at the moment paying for their fastest plan and quite happy with the service but higher data caps and faster speeds would be nice :)
Have my fingers crossed that this initiative goes through http://mm2020.ca/ so I get some fiber!
Unknown said...
The guy from Omnitech (owner) is an awesome guy and is still working with me to get it set up. My connection is pretty marginal due to elevation and trees but he is still working to get a better signal.
Despite not having success (yet) with them I have been nothing but impressed. If you check their coverage map you might be able to get an idea of whether or it is avail to you. If you have decent LOS to one of their towers I would give it a shot.
This is also not a full time thing for them so you sometimes have to be patient with the messages/callbacks. I am more than happy to work with the guy to get it set up and help him grow his business to provide some alternatives in the market.
Unknown said...
I don't think this blog is open to post to anymore but for those in the Appleton area this is great news. Looks like we're getting Fiber :) http://millstonenews.com/2017/07/high-speed-rural-internet-coming-closer-in-mm.html
Mike Lepard said...
For anybody in the Corkery area, South of March Rd and between 417 and Upper Dwyer. If you aren't already aware, Bell is bringing Fiber to the home. You should see a flyer from Bell when they're ready to do installs in your neighborhood.
CIK Telecom said...
Compared to Fido, CIK Telecom is cheaper and same reliable.
Chris Spencer said...
CIK Telecom doesn't seem to have rural presence. Fibre and Cable only, based on their website, so I'm guessing they're a reseller unless they're actually deploying new networks in the rural Ottawa and Ottawa Valley areas.
Unknown said...
I'm on Storm (not affiliated in any way) until Bell brings Fibre to my area. I've been really happy with their service and have never had issues streaming video (Netflix, Youtube, etc..) during peak hours. Although I am on their highest speed plan.
https://www.storm.ca/
Unknown said...
We finally complained enough to Bell that the put in a copper line. I get a blazing 5mbps but I’m not sharing with anyone or oversubscribed like xplornet
Expatbak said...
I contacted Bell to see what my options are. I am west of Stittsville but seem to be in a pocket where highspeed is all around me but I cannot get anything. I have xplornet (xplornot). It is expensive. What do I need to request from Bell?
Christian Fry said...
Lots happening around the 9th line area of Beckwith right now. Looks like Bell is installing fibre along that route, and many residents in the area have signed up for a fibre project by Community Fibre. If you are in a reasonably populated area with only wireless options, I would recommend getting in touch with Community Fibre to see if a project is viable in your area. We ended up getting a good portion of people to sign up to pay for the construction costs ($30/month for 3 years + internet plan charge) once service has been activated. (www.communityfibre.ca)
jmec said...
Hello Aura Fiber Rep: I'm not sure that you really read this blog at all - it looks like you just plugged your sales pitch in here. If you had read the blog, you would know that most of us are rural and do NOT have any fiber to the home. How exactly are you going to deliver your services to us?
posted by Chris Spencer at 11:55 am
4 comments
Unknown said...
I'm not sure how to contact you. I have a major development in the the gov't of canada & Bell's connecting Canadians initiative. Bell is offering the zte turbo hub for $0 on a 2 year term with up to 1 hundred gigabytes for $63.95. If possible message me I would like to talk more about this with you.
Chris Spencer said...
@eric lough
That sounds like a pretty good deal, but I could not find any mention of it on Bell's website. It was showing the ZTE turbo hub for $99 on a 2-year plan, and their data plans were the same-old-pricey-Bell ($145 for 100 GB).
When is the offer supposed to start?
-Chris
Toronto Wedding Photographer said...
I perfer speedtest.net and fast.com.
Chris Spencer said...
I use speedtest.net fairly often, but I'd never heard of fast.com... so thanks!
posted by Chris Spencer at 9:34 am
1 comments
said...
There is a small, local company trying to do fibre in the Beckwith/Ashtion/Munster/Dywer Hill/Fallowfield road area. They have a survey where people can express interest. The survey can be found here: https://communityfibre.servicezones.net/BeckwithNorth. Any help advertising the survey much appreciated! Enter your address to see if you are in their zone and if so the survey button pops up. More information on the company can be found here: http://www.communityfibre.ca/. Thanks!
posted by Chris Spencer at 10:54 am
22 comments
said...
Rural west Ottawa here.
I wonder what the actual speed will be.
Seeing how the 5Mbps WiMax service actually gives real world speeds of about 1Mbps. (outside of mid-day or middle of night)
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4312471506
http://testmy.net/db/Hq068C7V
said...
This is great news... except for the fact that my neighbour just got it and tested his speeds at 4mbps. He was previously on their 10mbps package and was getting 2, so he's quite happy with the doubling in speed but let's face it, when they advertise up to 25mbps, you'd expect that a majority of the time you're at least getting close to that.
Chris Spencer said...
Focus less on speeds and more on end-user experience. That said, faster speeds will likely result in better end-user experience as data-hungry users download more and more.
I wonder if Xplornet's 25 Mbps service will be throttled LTE. I have LTE on my corporate smartphone (on the Rogers net) and have gotten download speeds in excess of 40 Mbps.
Unknown said...
sadly I decided to signup to xplornet, the sale person worked hard convincing me that things have changed, the service is better and "No we don't over load the network anymore that was the old 900 service" statement.
So I signed up for the 10Meg 175GB in the hopes I would get somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4-5 Meg in the evening, you know enough to watch Netflix maybe browse the web at the same time.
Boy was that person every wrong... the only time I get better than 3Meg service is the middle of the day... you know that time when no one is around, even then I only get around 3.5-4.5 Meg. I the evening good luck loading a web page, I tried to log a ticket with xplornet regarding the really terrible speeds. Took me 10-15 mins to just get that logged. I could not even open an SSH connection to a server and Netflix even on the lowest setting is still buffering.
Thank god I am within the first 30 days, this is ridiculous... Back to slow but at least consistent DSL.
The LTE Service should be faster... but for how long... how long until they over load that service 3months, 6months... who knows.
said...
All the wonderful announcements about the wonderful high speed wireless internet in rural Ottawa are masking the issue that Xplornet is not delivering to customers what they are promising in the news.
I installed Xplornet 4G 10/1 internet in February. It worked great for a couple of weeks, then I started having issues. It started slowing to about 1 Mb speeds at intervals during the day and at peak times. My wife works from home on a VPN, and this causes here VPN to drop connection - therefore the internet service does not meet our needs, and we are at 10% of the service we are paying for.
Xplornet just put LTE 10/1,25/1 through our area, so I just upgraded to the LTE 10/1 hoping for an improvement as they promised. Well, again, it worked great for a couple of weeks, about double the speed I was getting with 4G and half the ping speed, but then it also slowed to a crawl. Now the LTE is WORSE than the 4G, and I have been getting 0.4 Mbps during the day and from 5pm to 10pm at night. This is so slow my wife cannot work from home and we cannot open anything other than email.
I've contacted Xplornet, and of course they're telling me to keep unplugging my modem and router, which does nothing. I am planning to install Storm 4G internet now as they are promising me that their 'peak time' speed is still 6 or 7 Mbps. I don't believe them at all, but this is literally the last choice I have.
I am also planning to contact my MLA and start the discussion to try and show that this wireless internet is NOT providing residential customers with high speed internet. We need Fibre Op, plain and simple.
Happy Dawg said...
I've just signed up for the LTE 25 service. I'm in the Ashton area pointing toward the barn silos on Hwy 7 before Carleton Place. My down speed tests at about 23.6 during an 8am test and about 22.8 during a 7pm test. Upload was 1.38 in the morning and .68 in the evening. This was real world testing over a two day period. If I get back here I'll post some more speed test results. I jokingly asked the installer what happens after my first 30 days (in reference to throttling). He just smiled.
For now I can stream in HD, play on the computer, and do other "normal" things. The cost is outrages, but they know users will pay who want decent speeds.
said...
I had a site survey done by Storm but I may not be close enough to their tower; I have to talk to them next week.
Xplornet said my low speeds on my LTE 10 (0.4 Mbps during anything close to peak times) were due to my antenna being wooded by trees. Just had a 10' mast installed today, which made the signal steady, but surprise surprise, speed is still 0.4 Mbps.
Now they are saying that the installer didn't get the antenna aimed just right and are planning to have them come back and re-aim it. I am not buying that that's the problem.
I am hoping to switch to Storm. I grilled them about how slow the speed would be during peak times, and they are all adamant that for 10 Mbps service, I would never see less than 6-8 Mbps. That's more than I've ever seen on the Xplornet LTE 10. Storm told me point blank that they do not oversell their service so that they can provide customers with the speed they promise. This is the issue with Xplornet, they are overselling their service to 5x capacity, so everyone's speeds are at a crawl.
I live 20 minutes from the Parliament buildings, and I cannot get reliable internet - ridiculous.
said...
We're using the Rogers Rocket Hub. It has improved since we moved here 5 years ago, but it's still not reliable or stable enough to use Netflix or stream anything. We are paying a lot of money for this, but I certainly don't think we're getting the service we deserve for that money.
Has anyone tried NorthWind? It's been in the area for a while now, but we're afraid to try it.
Why can't these providers give a minimum guarantee? What is so difficult about supplying us with decent high speed service? This isn't the wilderness.
said...
Not sure if anyone else has noticed but the new McGee Meadows off of William Mooney is getting Fiber to the house from Bell and Rogers. My neighbor talked with the Bell installer and he gave us a number because Bell is running this right past our street (Canterberry Woods) and when we called them we were told that we were not on the list to get anything in the near future. Which is brutal considering they had to go past us to get to the new development.
said...
Argh!! The fact William Mooney is getting fiber and I'm about 2km away and can't even get DSL is brutal for sure. Bell's website and one of their internal databases actually started saying my address qualified for ADSL so I ordered, 2 days later they cancel it because there was an error on their side. Stuck with Rocket Hub and a ridiculously low cap. Teksavvy actually offers a wireless service at 10Mbps and unlimited but only in Chatham-Kent region. I'm ok with paying above city rates for the internet, but double the price for 10% of the value is too much when a nightly walk goes by someone with fiber.
goZoom.ca Inc said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
goZoom.ca Inc said...
Re: xPlornet Not Oversubscribing their LTE stuff:
Assuming they are running the same LTE gear that we are (which I'm 99.99% sure they are); by that manufacturer's current Spec. LTE offers 100Mbps down per sector in 2x2 on a single carrier, 20Mhz channel. 200Mbps is coming in Q4 this year. So if xPlornet is truly not oversubbing their LTE equipment they have 4 customers on a single Sector (antenna). That Sector with an eNodeB (radio) costs about $10K. $89 x 4 (customers if not oversubbed)=$356/month revenue from that sector. I somehow doubt that xPlornet would spend over 10K to enable less that $400 per month in *Gross* revenue, so that claim may be a tad bit incorrect.
I have, however, seen screen shots of a NMS showing 185 LTE clients connected to a single eNodeB in the Spencerville area. Since Storm and JCIS are not yet doing LTE (at least as far as I know) I would assume (and I may be wrong) that is an xPlornet deployment, and if so that might be closer to their reality.
But that would be a little insane... so more likely(?) they have 100 to 150 subs per sector, averaging maybe 10Mbps sold per sub, so about 1.25Gbps sold vs. 100Mbps available (that's assuming that you're filling 100% of your AirRate - which is typically impossible BTW). Give them the benefit of the doubt and say Roughly 12:1 oversub; much better than the over 50:1 they were trying to get away with on the Canopy gear they started with, but still more than triple what the rest of us aim for in a NetFlix world.
So, while modulation plays a part (e.g. if you're burried in trees with an CINR of 24 you probably won't see better than 7Mbps anyways), it more than likely comes down to the Sector you're on. If you *are* getting 25Mbps most of the time then you're on lightly loaded sector, but if you're only getting 5 then there's no point in paying for 25 because you may never see it due to overloading.
Cheers,
Ian
Chris Spencer said...
BTW, I signed up for Xplornet's 25 Mbps service about a month ago. It's been pretty fast, but when tested, the download speeds are all over the map. As I write this, I'm getting ~3.5 Mbps down, but I think my kids are also downloading on their computers and tablets, so my current result is skewed. I have also gotten over 20 Mbps down. More typically, I've been getting 10-12 Mbps down. I'm homed to the Metcalfe tower, which is ~19km away.
Uploading is fairly consistent: 750 Kbps - 1 Mbps.
Depending on how things go, I may ask them to re-home my antenna to the North Gower tower when they upgrade it. I may also downgrade to the 10 Mbps service if they can't maintain speeds above 10 Mbps on my 25 Mbps service.
All this said, we regularly watch Netflix and Sony/Playstation movies skip-free. I play online real-time games (e.g. World of Tanks) where ping-time is *everything*, and I'm routinely getting well below 100ms, which is excellent (on their old 3G service, pings of ~150ms were typical). I occasionally work from home, and have no issues, even when downloading large files.
-Chris
goZoom.ca Inc said...
Yup it's a question of Capacity and over subscription. They are catching on after... how long has it been since they bought Storm's rural Res. ?? 8 Years ?
BTW: LTE appears to be most efficient when you limit upload to 1Mbps per customer, maximizing the downlink air time. In this config, it is very predictable bandwidth if the eNodeB is not ridiculously oversubscribed. LTE 25x2, http://www.speedtest.net/result/4481202261.png)Of course with any Flash based speed test you get some weirdness - this is not actually - we cap the sub at 25Mbps) http://www.speedtest.net/result/4481195031.png The tower is 4Km. The LTE Sector is not heavily loaded so Speeds are very consistent.... of course there's less money to be made in being consistent than being heavily over-subbed ;-)
IMHO If you need something symmetrical, or even just more than 2Mbps Up you're better off with FDD or a hybrid TDMA. http://www.speedtest.net/result/4481222132.png
Ian
said...
I am located in Stittsville/Carp area and am currently on LTE25 (and have been for ~6 months). Previous to LTE, I was on the Wimax 'Extreme' plan. LTE was good for a few months - ping time was averaging 50ms and speeds were close enough to the rated 25 down and 1 up for me to be 'satisfied' (although still frustrated that I'm paying triple that of people 2 km away on Rogers or Bell's high speed). The last month and a half, however, has been hell. Ping times are all over the map - but have now been hovering around 200ms and, at times, over 900ms. Web pages are failing to resolve, bandwidth has started to crawl around 1 Mbps. Even Xplornet representatives are ticked off with Xplornet, and openly telling customers (me) that the service has been oversold, the backbone supplying the towers is underrated for the amount of subscribers.
To top it all off, the 'wireless canopy' that Xplornet uses is VERY insecure. Essentially its a massive Wifi LAN and you can see and connect to EVERY SUBSCRIBER/CUSTOMER that's on the same tower as you.
VERY UNHAPPY WITH XPLORNET - ESPECIALLY FOR THE $100/Month that I pay them
said...
Storm for a couple of years here. Just outside of Ashton.
$75 + $10 per month for 10 down, 1 up. 99.99% uptime. 99.99% of the time getting almost 100% of the speed - there are no peak times. 25 to 65ms ping times most of the time, with an occasional spike to 100ms.
VOIP works great (with voip.ms !).
The moment speed degrades, they obviously fix it immediately, because the speed gets back to 100% very quickly. Apparently they have great monitoring software for this, and act on it right away. Evidence so far shows they weren't kidding.
It's been like this consistently for the two years we've been with them.
The challenge now is to get the router to slow down the bandwidth to all those tablets kicking around the house, and to keep the bandwidth under 150GB.
Unknown said...
Well I signed up to xplornet back in August, 10 Meg LTE is all I could apparently the signal was to strong to get 25 Meg. Speeds were great until this last 2-3 weeks. During the day is great 10 Meg almost all the time 20ms ping to various Montreal & Toronto locations. In the evening... that is another story, what was once the odd drop to 50-60 ms ping is now 200+ms and what was a drop to 7-8Meg is now bouncing around the 1.5 to 3 Meg.
When I signed up I assumed this would happen, but my assumption was it would be 6-9 months before the service would get to mostly unusable for anything other than browsing and email. Now gaming is a no go, streaming Netflix leads to constant buffering and Plex... good luck. I have gone from irritated to actually pissed in a matter of a couple weeks... because I knew better, but I fell into the trap the promises of faster speeds, bigger pipes and no... no... we learned from our mistakes we won't over load the canopy.
Don't fall into the trap, unless you have no other option... honestly Dialup might be a better solution.
Good job I kept the slow but consistent DSL connection...
Happy Dawg said...
A follow-up to my June posting my Xplornet 25M service. Connection speed has fallen off the map (just about). I was waiting for this and it finally arrived. Prime time weekday speeds are now running about 1.2meg to 2.4meg and pings well beyond 150ms(regularly). Certainly not enough to do any kind of streaming and is now impacting my OOMA. Sure, Sunday morning at 7am I can get full speed. I take advantage of that to try and download my programs to watch later. But forget doing live streaming. This all happening after several weeks of autonomous phone calls about service disruptions while they were "improving" services. This is not worth paying $100/mo for. I may as well downgrade the service and save a few bucks. As Lars mentioned, dial-up may be a better option, at least a stable, option. Oh will the rural people ever catch a break?
Unknown said...
Well thought I would check in... May 1st 2016 now and I spend most of time running on a Teksavvy 3 Meg DSL connection now because I get more stability from it...
Xplornet is now completely useless from about ~5:30 to ~11:30 every evening, pings are now landing around the ~1000ms, Speed somewhere in the 0.5Meg to 3Meg but so unreliable nothing can be done. Youtube, Netflix, Shomi really any streaming service is absolutely a no go. We get 10-15 seconds of somewhat grainy picture followed by 20-30sec of buffering please wait. Browsing the web and getting email is still somewhat ok, but if the site has any multimedia on it your pooched again.
We have had the techs out here to realign the radio more times than my parents have visited since getting the service. We are now just waiting for the contract to be up and we can cancel without penalty. I am so disappointed and frustrated that I fell into the trap of promises again, nothing has changed and service is now worse then is was in the 4G towers.
I have discussed this with our counsellor but he just blows us all off telling us we get excellent service provided by Barrett Xplornet. I have tried to explain the issues and its like I am talking greek, the guy lives in Kanata and has really no idea what kind of service xplornet is providing.
I live about 5Km's from Roger Cable 250Meg service and 1KM from 1Gig fibre cable... someday we will be provided decent service.
I am truly a disappointed West Carleton resident
said...
Don't feel bad folks. I am still on a canopy setup and been told I can be upgraded to LTE due to being in a dark zone which is BS as far as I am concerned; Plus tried to get Wimax, but they said the tower is no longer accepting new customers but yet, it is the same tower that has the LTE service. Here is the best....My neighbour is roughly 30 feet away and has Wimax service and is able to get the LTE service.
Someone tell me I am not being scammed by these guys. I pay $81.00 a month for a burst signal of 3 MB which drops to less than 800 KBs.
After seeing this article and them saying 100% of their customers will have LTE service by 2017, it will be interesting to see if I will get the service.
Note: I have sent a complaint to the CCTS and nothing was done, so if anyone has any more ideas that may help me, it would be greatly appreciated. I have tired every other ISP and they are not yet able to provide their service at this time.
WebDog said...
FYI, The city of ottawa has an exclusive contract with Xplornet, to bring "high speed" internet to rural ottawa, that clearly not doing, but the the counselors are so busy with center town that all the rest of ottawa gets neglected, i wonder if they even know the horrible service Xplodenet (not a type-o) are offering for that exclusive contract they are getting.
I wonder if they even care about us rural folks?
John Carry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
posted by Chris Spencer at 7:42 pm
37 comments
Unknown said...
I am also interested in more information, we are currently with Bell but the service is so slow we are looking at wireless alternative and keeping the DSL as a backup.
Xplornet seems to be the only other provider in my area, but they constantly over subscribe their towers/canopy/backhaul. At least the transfer amount is better now at 175 gig makes it a viable option.
Unknown said...
I asked them if/when they would be expanding their coverage to the south/west of Ottawa (Ashton Area) and they responded with Summer 2015. I also have a co-worker who is within their currently defined service area (rural Kanata North) and he has been trying to get an install done now for several weeks but they have yet to come out or give him a date.
Unknown said...
Last week, I exchanged a bunch of e-mails with someone from the company (owner?).
According to his calculations (my elevation, elevation of his antenna, etc.), I should be able to get a decent throughput (around 33 mbps or so).
Of course, we have to see about those darn trees on my property.
We have to schedule a visit/installation and are waiting for the weather to be a bit better (not so cold).
André
said...
OmniTec will be coming soon (mid-April 2015) to do a site survey at my deepwoods home in the Carp Hills. Zia Khan of OmniTec says their line-of-sight tower is off Campeau Drive.
said...
I had Zia out this past Sunday to check for connectivity at my Stonecrest Rd property, but unfortunately they could not get a signal at all (trees). He said they are working at putting up another tower in Carp, and will get back to me when it is ready.
Unknown said...
Ditto for me.
I might be the Carp person he was referring to.
I am off David Manchester, and Zia came over on Saturday and tried to get a signal.
Darn trees! The are too high, and I only have a bungalow.
He told me that they were working on something to try to get me connected and that I hear from them soon.
Have been waiting for high speed internet for 12 years or so, and I can wait a bit longer.
André
said...
Zia just left my home after being unable to get a signal from the tower, which is situated atop one of the three tall apartments buildings at the corner of Kanata + Campeau. Too many trees on our property in the Carp Hills. We will stick with Xplornet's satellite access: 80 GB for about $100/month.
said...
So do they seem legit? Is there anyone who is an actual customer? Seems to good to be true.
ian said...
Update? Anyone get on this service?
ian said...
Update? Anyone get on this service?
ian said...
Update? Anyone get on this service?
Unknown said...
Howdy,
Alas, Zia could not get a signal from my house either. Something about those darn trees. We tried everything we could think of, but no cigar.
According to Zia's calculations, I should have been able to get a signal, but there are a lot of tall trees between my house and his antenna.
Moving on, I contacted Storm Internet, even though they coverage map does not include my area (they used to be our ISP before Explornet became the 'preferred' internet provider for the city of Ottawa for a short time).
A company in the area (PlayValue) has a tall tower on their land and is using Storm for their high speed internet and VOIP.
They (Storm) believe that I should be able to get a signal, but it will cost me dearly to put a tower up (70 foot tall at least, self-supporting with a concrete base).
The good part is that, if I cannot get a signal, they will dismantle the tower and it won't cost me anything (but I will have a nice concrete block on my property).
André
P.S. Someone mentioned that Bell put some fiber along Richardson Sideroad a couple of years ago. I call Bell (damn, they are frustrating) and they cannot tell me what the Fibe plans are for this area , whether we are talking 2 years from now, 6 months or tomorrow.
Andreas said...
Omnitec's coverage map has just expanded to the West. I'm going to contact them for a site survey.
http://www.omnitecwireless.com/#!cover/c1rhn
said...
Is OmniTEC still in business? I emailed them a few days ago but haven't received a reply. I've also tried calling their toll free number and continually get cut off or left with no option other than leaving a voicemail.
Andreas said...
I've been trying to reach them for a month now, and have been unsuccessful. Not a good sign. I guess I'll stick with Xplornet.
Unknown said...
Hi,
Have not heard from Zia in a few days either. I know that he is expanding and is busy going around the area.
As I could not go with Zia (too many tall trees between his antenna and my house), I had to put a tower (72 feet and it was not cheap) on my property to be able to use one of Storm's antenna near the Diefunbunker.
André
said...
I've been a happy Omnitec customer since July (it's October now). OmiTEC Wireless came and did the install, putting their equipment on a silo on the farm next door to us. We had no line-of-sight from our backyard (huge trees) but the silo next door worked out great. I am located on the South-West side of Ottawa, not quite in Richmond.
Speeds are incredibly good compared to our previous Wind Mobile data stick (I had Xplornet for about a month last year before I gave up on it) and the connection is very reliable. No random down-times like we had with Wind, or even the Bell Portable Internet we had previously. We get fairly consistent 8M down, 2M up service.
We can actually watch Netflix and talk on our VOIP phone at the same time, which makes my wife very happy. Much cheaper than a Rogers Data stick, and can't beat the unlimited data.
I read this blog back in June when we were first looking for information on Omnitec, so I'm happy to report back that I'm a happy customer and have no problems recommending them to my neighbors or anybody else.
Nevin
said...
I originally found this blog post many months ago when I first moved to the area (July), and to my disappointment there wasn't much information here, or anywhere for that matter, in regards to the quality of service provided by OmniTEC Wireless.
With my only alternative being Xplornet (and probably Storm - which from their website has very similar pricing), I decided to chance it.
As another user said, phoning their number really only give you the option to leave a voicemail. Sketchy, but I tried calling back another day at a different time and got the same result... so I left a message. I got a call back within a few days and then a site visit not too long after that.
First site visit was a bust, the tech couldn't get a signal to their base. He contacts me a few days later and wants to come back to try getting a signal again with some different equipment. 'Lo and behold, we can get signal from my rooftop (albeit quite weak).
After many weeks of going back and forth I finally decided to get a used 40ft bracketed tower (the ones you typically mount an antenna on). I'm all about DIY so it took me another few weeks to get the tower, and put it up.
Long story short, I've been enjoying highspeed internet from OmniTEC Wireless since October 7th (I'm located near Donald B. and Diamondview). And so far I have no complaints!
I'd rate my experience with the tech and the weeks leading up to my installation a solid 10/10. He was professional and eager to make sure I was still working towards signing up with him.
I haven't completed my first billing cycle yet, but I'd rate the internet service a 10/10 as well. It has been up every time I go to use it, it has enabled me to do work from home, and so far speed tests indicate that it hasn't fallen more than 2MBps (download) below my package (I admit my tower isn't the greatest install, she shakes a wee bit near the very top when the wind gets up). But yeah, I'm getting a consistent 4-5MBps download and 1-1.5MBps upload. Watching a 1080p video on YouTube is no problem...
Lastly, based on the many encounters and exchanges I've had with the rep from OmniTEC, I am extremely confident that if I ever have an issue it will be dealt with quickly and to my satisfaction... there's a really awesome guy leading this company!
Cheers!
BT said...
I am curious where the tower is, is it along Franktown Road?
Have you had any issues with your service?
WebDog said...
Been a while since any new posts. I looking it them too. Any comments?
WebDog said...
Gave them a call on Saturday, they were closed, One of the partners called me back on Sunday.
Taking the plunge getting a site check out, hoping for the best, right now I am tethering to my cell, but have to watch for my usage, cus the overage is a killer.
Mark said...
@WebDog - how did it go? Wondering how the site visit went.
WebDog said...
@Mark - Had a call, but no visit. I think I have to pay up the fees before any visits are made. But with all the bad experiences I had with other providers, I have grown very weary of paying up front.
Unknown said...
@WebDog - Unless things have changed recently, I do not believe that Zia charges for a visit to see if you can get a signal. If he comes over and finds that you can get a strong enough signal, you would then have to pay for the installation and setup. At least, that is my understanding.
I know that he is quite busy right now, and is expanding. I would suggest sending him another e-mail or calling the number that is on the web site.
André (not yet a customer of Omnitec)
WebDog said...
Got a call back, trying to get him to check if it would work for me this week.
said...
I'm moving to carp in 2 weeks (near the cheshire cat pub) and am looking into ISP. Rogers and Bell both offered me a stick. It seems like my other options are Storm, Northwind, and I will try to contact Omnitec to see if they will come and survey the property. Storm chrges 50$ to come and see if there is signal, and northwind is free. anyone have any thoughts or insight, they would be greatly appreciated!
WebDog said...
@A.F. Give TechSaavy a call to see first
said...
Thanks @Webdog!
said...
@webdog- techsaavy does not service the area.
seems my options primarily satelite internet- xplornet, storm, possibly northwind wireless and omnitech
I am open to anyone's thoughts/feedback.
WebDog said...
Well in my case still waiting after Zia from Onmitec, I guess they are so small that they have 1 guy doing the testing and install. I guess I have to wait some more… bumper
Unknown said...
@A.F. & @WebDog
Cannot comment on Bell's stick. I used to have Rogers' modem (cell tower), it was bloody slow, and expensive. At the time, it was the only thing available.
A co-worker has Xplornet and the speed is nowhere near the "up to 25 mbps" they advertise. They can watch the occasional Netflix movie but the speed really fluctuates.
On my way home today (I was a passenger in the car), I was looking at the 3 buildings near the Centrum mall. Zia's antenna is on one of the towers and it seems to have a line of site to the area around the pub. So, you should be able to get a signal ... if he gets back to you (he is a small provider, after all). And no, I am still not one of his customers.
North of the Cheshire pub (about 200 metres or so on Carp road), someone has a tower with an antenna on it. You could inquire as to who they use for their Internet connection (maybe Storm???).
Also, we recently (this morning) saw a new sign on David Manchester (between Falcon Brook Road and Old Almonte road). Someone got a mobile tower installed (on a trailer, and with guy wires), and there is a sign that says "Northwind wireless: Now available in your area". It looks as if it could be an 80 or 90 foot tower. It would not be surprising if it was a repeater tower.
André
said...
Thanks very much, @AndreSastre!
And @Webdog
Very helpful information and feedback, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, this is all quite new to me and having input is helpful!
WebDog said...
Update! Zia replied to my recent email, they are having difficulties with a tower on McCordick. So they are falling behind.
I try to get him to call me for more info.
I will keep you posted.
said...
a quick update- Zia came out to my house and took one look around and said that the trees are too high. We're now with rogers mobile wireless. the connection is fast but its quite expensive. i contacted bell again and apparently bell fibe is a few houses down on an adjacent street, so heres hoping it comes to my home soon.
Mark said...
Hi all,
We are moving to north-west of Carleton Place this weekend. I emailed OmniTEC via their website and was in contact with Zia right away. Our new place has a 50-60ft tower in place, so Zia was asking if we would consider being a hub for the local area - a discount is offered, not sure how much yet. They plan to be on site to do the site survey next week. We are only about 4.5 km from CP, so should be able to get a decent signal I hope. Will update later.
Mark
Mark said...
Alas....no signal at my location. :-(
Mark
WebDog said...
Sad to say, I am giving up, I love giving my business to the small companies, Just not getting anywhere.
No call backs, no emails, :-(
posted by Chris Spencer at 5:50 pm
7 comments
said...
Very Nice Post....How to Improve Internet Speed
said...
I looked into the new service they are offering by trying out some New Brunswick postal codes as it has been launched there. There seem to be 2 tiers, 10mbps and 25mbps, with a max upload still of 1mbps. To be fair though, the real limit to the plans Xplornet offers isn't just the speed, but the total amount of bandwidth they provide per month and without a reasonable option to even purchase more bandwidth (unless you consider paying $4/GB overages reasonable). The only real competition for rural Internet unfortunately though are the LTE modems with ridiculously low bandwidth caps, unless you have access to Storm or another WISP in your area.
On another note, Ottawa won't be getting more rural internet competitors anytime soon either, as the network Storm and others run on, EORN, has been restricted to outside the Ottawa area. Blame the city council for this one as they choice not to participate in the network adoptions and build-out. My beliefs is the city doesn't care enough to invest since they made the original deal with Xplornet couple years ago for them to provide 100% coverage for rural Ottawa, so they said why bother invest in another network.. So for those who are Rural Ottawa (ie Me in Carp) your kinda screwed.
Mike Lepard said...
Chris,
I can't seem to figure out how to add a new post. I just saw an flyer about a new Wireless ISP for the west end of rural Ottawa.
http://www.omnitecwireless.com/
I'm just in their coverage area and would be interested to know if anyone else were with them.
Chris Spencer said...
Hi Mike.
In order to keep down the spam (of which there is a lot), only I can start new threads on my blog. So.... I just added a new posting, looking for info on OmniTec Wireless. Hopefully we'll get some feedback soon. Thanks for letting me know about it.
-Chris
Unknown said...
Howdy,
Regarding Xplornet being the preferred internet supplier in rural Ottawa (I live in Carp also, off David Manchester), I had an exchange recently with one of Councillor Eli El-Chantiry assistant, then with the Economic Development Officer. The agreement between the City and Xplornet expired more than two years ago. My e-mail conversation with the city occurred in late October. Nobody seems to be interested in providing high speed internet in our area (except for Bell and Roger via their mobile hubs).
And regarding Omnitec Wireless, I have never heard of this company before, but their coverage map shows that I should be able to get service from them (I hope that my darn trees are not too high) as I live off David Manchester, near Old Almonte drive. I actually work right across the company’s office building (on Gloucester) and will try to get some answers from them and share what I learn.
I have called them a few times but nobody picks up the phone and I cannot leave a voice mail. Hmmm! Not good.
Will send them an e-mail and see if they contact me back.
Chris, thank you for providing a lot of information on your site. I check it out once in a while.
Cheers,
André
Unknown said...
I was chomping a the bit to switch to LTE from my constantly degrading 10Mbps 4G service (now down to a pathetic 1 Mbsp during peak times). However, after hearing from several tech that this new system doesn't support VPN and failing to get an adequate explanation as to why I decided I had enough of the Xplornet headaches and false promises. Storm is now servicing my area and they are installing service for me today.
Unknown said...
Storm installed... Yesterday at this time I was getting 1.5Mbps on my 10Mbps Xplornet connection. Today with Storm I just got 12Mbps on a 10Mbps connection with a 25ms ping to boot. So happy to finally be done with Xplornet.
posted by Chris Spencer at 8:11 pm
12 comments
Christian Fry said...
I have received a few "Get a great deal with a 1 year contract" offers from Xplornet lately, I wonder if they know DSL is headed out to my area.
said...
I doubt it Christian, if you are really rural that is, Bell has said they are done with expanding dsl for now. I get those deal offers as well but refuse to deal with them. I still have dial up, waiting for something descent to come along. Google will be investing in sat's so maybe with them.
said...
Ottawa chose not to join the EORN project and go it alone, so the project literally goes around the city of Ottawa including all the rural area. All these areas are getting fiber, expanded DSL, Storm, Bell high speed wireless at discounted prices and Rural ottawa is left with Xplornet.
said...
Why EORN wants customers to sign up with a company that has a BBB rating of C+ is beyond me.
Christian Fry said...
I can hold out hope! They are doing some roadwork and new developments in my area and it looks like they strung up all new phone lines. Looks like Storm wireless in my area so I can avoid that C+ rating - I was never happy with them when we used it at work. If City of Ottawa is going alone, they should get that up and running around the same time as light rail...
said...
of course hang on to hope, I get it! :-) I have heard very good things about Storm, Id give them a shot in a second if they were out my way, good luck Christian!
said...
I'm moving to Chelsea, Quebec, and wondering who you would recommend for high speed Internet there? Who offers the fastest, most reliable service?
said...
In the Ottawa West area, along the Ottawa river and now in the Corkery/March road areas we have Northwind, a Kanata based company. Signed up 4 weeks ago, service ha been excellent. My hookup is for 3.5 Mb, regular speedtests, during the day and evening have fluctuated between 3.3 to 3.5. No connection drops.
Christian Fry said...
I ended up going with Storm internet in the Ashton/Carleton Place area about a week ago. So far it seems to be working great and I was glad to have an option other than Xplorenet. Speed and latency are pretty close to what I get with my office DSL connection. Very responsive and easy to get in touch with support staff.
Alex said...
anyone have suggestions for the Vernon area? I am so fed up with Xplornet
Alex said...
Storm was great, we were with them before the city of Ottawa forced them out for Xplornet.
Alex said...
Storm was great, we were with them before the city of Ottawa forced them out for Xplornet.
posted by Chris Spencer at 9:52 pm
22 comments
Fitz-n-Startz said...
Hi Chris... just came across your blog and recent post as I searched again for solutions to my own rural west end Ottawa Internet solutions (I'm outside Carp, near the 417).
You mention an 80GB bump in cap for $5/month with XplorNet... their site currently shows a 30 (thirty) GB bump for $5. Did you make a typo, or did you negotiate a sweet deal? Overage is also listed at $5/GB.
Chris Spencer said...
@Fitz. No, I meant 80 GB. It may have been a limited time offer. Still, 30 GB for $5 ain't too shabby either. -Chris
danpoleary said...
Hi Chris, I to have been in the Rogers Bell cycle because nothing else works. I tried Explornet, but after the 30 days, all kinds of bandwidth issues cropped up, including not being able to watch any netflix HD.
I had Rogers LTE, but their tower kept having power issues, and it would drop to a distant lower speed tower. They would never fix it permanently, kept saying it will take three to four days for someone to come out and check it. Finally cancelled Rogers without a penalty.
Got Bell LTE, with the same issues you reported in an earlier post. Kept interfering what I was doing with those stupid bandwidth usage notifications. I agree, th cost of LTE is atrocious.
I am from the Telco industry, and I can tell you that the cost to Bell or Rogers is cheaper for LTE then for wired customers. They make massive profit off of LTE Internet customers to fund their wired customers. Thats why in my area, the only movement we saw for wired access, was when Verizon was threatening to move in to Canada. All of a sudden Bell engineers were doing site surveys to wire the area. When Verizon pulled out, everything stopped.
Bell and Rogers will not shoot themselves in the foot as long as they can maximize profit from the LTE Internet service.
I hope an external provider moves into Canada, I would like to see Bell and Rogers either improve their services and pricing, or suffer consumer backlash.
I am trying to see if storm can provide service again, here is to hoping.
Dan
said...
Northwind Communications recently expanded into my neighbourhood (Sierra Woods) and people are signing up PDQ. After Simply Surf went under, there was a huge gap in internet provision waiting to be filled. Tried Bell Hub which worked OK with an external antenna but the data caps were exorbitant. Xplornet has pretty well worn out their welcome here with promising the moon then oversubscribing their service to the point of congestion. So far, everyone I've spoken to who has made the switch to Northwind is pleased with their service. Nice to be able to enjoy Netflix, etc. just like a city person and not pay a king's ransom for the privilege.
danpoleary said...
I was out of luck with Storm, and I may be out of luck with Northwind. They say if I have trees that they may block the signal since I am near the edge of coverage area. Here's to hoping it will work. I seem to be hoping a lot lately :-)
I was also told by Bell today, that they cancelled bringing wired to the area because of rocks... I asked them why they need to dig, since all the need to do is update the node on the corner, and use the new copper that's here already. It looks like they did not want to use copper since we could use any provider. With fibe to the home, they can lock us to their limited/costly plan. With copper, I would have gone with TekSavvy.
Unknown said...
Hi Chris
Are you using the fixed wireless plan?
I'm currently using Bell Turbo Hub. Or should I say barely using since I like to keep the bill down.
I also looked at the plans and it shows addtional 70 GB for $5 bucks (a lot better than Bell at $15 Per)
The only problem may be that when they came out many years ago, they said they couldn't get a signal from the tower because of the trees :(
Chris Spencer said...
@Cat, yes, I'm on a fixed wireless plan with Xplornet. When I signed up, in September, they were offering an extra 80 GB for $5. Give them a call anyway; they've changed their network a fair bit in the last few years, so they may now be able to get a signal at your place. --Chris
Unknown said...
Hey Chris. I've actually been an xplornet customer for the past year on their business plan (4G fixed wireless in Carp on their top SO-HO plan) and they have definitely improved since their previously horrendous practises. I called them up today actually to find about the package you aren't talking about and switched, however when I called they said there are no overage caps for the "stream" plan or any other residential plan. Instead they throttle your internet speeds to 150kbps for the remainder of the month.. So basically a tad better than dial up. And they don't have an add-on option for additional bandwidth. I switched because no overage and a $50/month savings vs. $5/gb overage meant some money being saved for the same service. But I'm curious where you saw or heard the $1/gb overage fee?
On another note they said overage fees aren't being charged right now anyways until they get everything finalized and we would all get an email when that happens in advance.
Chris Spencer said...
Hi Matt. Thanks for the update. I read about the overage fees back in September/October, and Xplornet's offerings have changed since then. Not surprising, since a lot of companies -- not just ISPs -- have monthly specials. Xplornet appears to be aggressively trying to attract new customers and/or get former customers back. --Chris
Jason Wwalker said...
We moved to the west side of Richmond 6 years ago. There is no cable out here and we started using DSL through Bell. The DSL lines had decent speed but it kept disconnecting. We were told that the reason was that we lived 5.5 km from the nearest hub. After 4 years of this (and many tech support calls to Bell) we gave up and went with Xplornet. The connection is stable but the speeds are horrible. We too only get 300 Kbps download.
We lived with it for 2 years and just recently tried DSL again...same problem. Back to Xplornet we go.
I did call about the 4G service and they said I needed a tower in my yard at a cost of $1,000. Anyone have any experience with this?
Chris Spencer said...
Yes, DSL is very sensitive to distance from the central office, although 5.5 km seems a little short (but I could be mistaken).
I didn't have Xplornet require me to put up a tower to get their 4G service, and my service is homed to the Xplornet tower in Kemptville, approximately 15km away. The Xplornet 4G speeds and reliability are pretty good, although it has been a while since I've done a download speed test. My user experience is fine, except sometimes videos don't play without hiccups.
However, Storm did require me to erect a tower to get their service... which I declined.
-Chris
Joel said...
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Regards,
Joel
JHouston791 gmail.com
said...
Hi, Chris
I too am in the Kemptville area, and am trying to find decent high speed internet. I am currently with Xplornet on their non-4g service, but to get a closer tower I need to upgrade. I am dissatisfied with their sustained internet speeds (0.6 on a 3.0 plan), and was wondering what it is like with your plan.
Thanks,
Robert.
Chris Spencer said...
@Robert: I have the 5Mbps/20GB Share plan with an extra 80GB. It's been a while since I've bothered to test the download and upload speeds on my Xplornet service, mainly because I've been quite happy with the service. I work from home frequently using xterm and VNC connections with very rare slowdowns, and I game online without problem. I just ran two download tests in a row on testmy.net and got 1.6 and 3.5 Mbps.
Christian Fry said...
Hi Chris,
I did a search on your blog for any references to EORN, it didn't come up with any results. Lots of good information on where HS will be going in and when. www.eorn.ca
Chris Spencer said...
Thanks for the info on EORN, Christian! I'll add a link to it on the blog's main page. --Chris
said...
Hi Chris,
Thanks for all of your information. I live in rural Kemptville and have been an Xplornet customer for years. Last year, I switched to their 4G line of site service and average 3.5 - 4.3 Mbps. For $65/month, I have the new modem and 100 GB limit.
I am considering switching to TekSavvy DSL. I called them and can get 15 Mbps download, with 300 GB limit per month for under $40/month. I do have to pay $120 for a new modem.
Have you or others heard of how well TekSavvy DSL works in rural areas? Will I get that speed. The pricing is great and I am looking for 300 GB, as we recently purchased Apple TV and Netflix (Both of which are fantastic)!!
Thanks,
Mike.
Chris Spencer said...
@Mike. I haven't heard much about Teksavvy, other than they are low-cost. I haven't heard anything negative about them.
I haven't looked into them much since they only offer DSL or cable in the Ottawa area. If you can get DSL or cable to your house, then you are not "rural" within the definitions of this blog and you have many options for obtaining high-speed internet.
Apparently, Teksavvy only offers "Sky Fi" (fixed wireless internet) in the Chatham-Kent area, so they don't have much to offer people in the Ottawa Valley etc who can't get DSL or cable.
Good luck, and if you do decide to go with Teksavvy, let us know how it is.
-Chris
said...
Thanks Chris for your reply. I think it is only very recently that DSL has become available in my area as an alternative. I believe I need a tech visit by Bell to upgrade my line to my house and I can then use TekSavvy. I live approx. 7 km from "downtown" Kemptville.
We can get speeds up to 14 Mbps. A neighbour down the street has this service and receives fairly consistent connection speeds. I am monitoring how they feel about the service. If I do make the switch, I will be happy to report back, although I understand it may not help many rural customers that cannot get this service. But I do recommend that people periodically check their home phone number to see if it qualifies.
I would like to add that I have been very happy with my Xplornet internet service. I am near a tower and have always had good connectivity and decent download speed rates for a rural area. Their switch to 4G was a nice improvement. If I do switch it is strictly for additional monthly GB limits and the significantly lower cost for better speeds. But pricing is not my top priority, I will pay more for a reliable and consistent internet service.
Regards, Mike.
Chris Spencer said...
Just to update everyone, I'm still with Xplornet, but I've upped my service from 5 Mbps to 10 Mbps... mostly because my kids have discovered Netflix. No issues with service or speed or anything, really. At least for me, Xplornet's 4G service has been great.
-Chris
said...
I'm in south Ottawa and just switched from Bell Turbo Hub as well Chris. It was fast, but twitchy and frankly, WAY too expensive. The tech installed everything and the speeds on the 5mb package are about 2mb during most of the day a solid 5 in the mornings. is this about what you found?
Thanks, Craig
Chris Spencer said...
@Craig B, I haven't specifically measured my download speeds on Xplornet for some time. I tend to view things the end-user experience. I work from home (VoIP, on-line meetings, and large file transfers), play online games (low ping), and watch Netflix (low latency/jitter), in addition to normal web browsing and emails. All in all, I am happy with the service.
Price is what drove me away from the Bell Turbo Hub and back to Xplornet. Good service quality is what keeps me on Xplornet.
-Chris
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