On Mon, Jun 02, 2025 at 12:40:57AM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
Here's what I think I know about broadband providers in Toronto.
Broadband internet comes into houses on cables owned by Rogers or Bell. A very few large buildings are serviced by Beanfield. Rogers old: co-ax cable Bell old: copper pair Rogers and Bell new: optical fibre to the home. Beware: Bell Fibe does not mean fibre.
The CRTC requires the owners of these cables to allow third-party ISPs to sell services to be delivered over these "last mile" facilities. Complicating matters is that a lot of these third parties are actually owned by Bell or Rogers.
Bell is ripping out copper, replacing it with fibre. To a lesser extent, Rogers is ripping out co-ax cable, replacing it with fibre. I have seen indications that they don't build out fibre where the other company has already done so, lowering competition.
I was actually surprised to notice I have two fibres at the side of my house. One labeled rogers, the other labeled Bell. I guess they both wanted to be able to get customers in the area. I initially thought only Rogers was here given Bell initially said they didn't have service in the area, but now that has changed.
Bell and Rogers are resisting allowing resellers access to the fibre cables. As I understand it, this is defying CRTC regulations.
Bell is allowing access to their fibre here. For example I could get service from teksavvy now if I wanted to switch. 1.5G/940M is what they list as the only option.
(I'm currently in trouble because my copper connection is being decommissioned. I'm losing my 3rd party ISP even though they provide services that Bell refuses to provide.)
Bell and Rogers each want to provide you a bundle: internet, home phone, TV. On the face of it, these bundles are often good deals. There are regularly very good bundle prices that expire after a year of two.
Yeah they sure like their bundles.
When you use a third party ISP for internet on that cable, you cannot buy home phone or TV from Bell or Rogers. To make up for this, the ISP may well offer a IP TV streaming TV package and an IP phone package. I don't know how satisfactory those are.
I don't know all the true third party ISPs. I deal with Vybe Networks (upstream: Colosseum) and Teksavvy.
I suspect that Freedom Mobile is a 3rd party ISP. Judging by the speeds they offer my address, they are using Rogers co-ax here. They offer some kind of TV service over their internet service. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with their mobile services.
Freedom mobile is owned by videotron owned by quebecor. Used to be owned by Shaw. -- Len Sorensen