I just did the test for my ultra highspeed 15 mbps offered by Eastlink cable in Halifax, ns. I have a really good speed for what I am paying for and expecting. I am aware of other Internet providers such as Bell/Aliant here that claim they have up to 10 mbps, but I know people who have yet to see a good speed from them. Posted by: Kim MacNeil | Nov 21, 07 08:25 PM

I did a number of tests on my Sympatico High speed connection from downtown Toronto, where I expected to get the 7 mbps that I was paying for and found a range from 3243 to 4330 on the download and 497 to 550 on the upload!!! Roughly half of what I am paying for. Posted by: Murray Abbott | Nov 21, 07 08:45 PM

Half an hour after the show aired my speed doubled. Now about 2 hours later it's tripled. Coincidence? Yeah, right! Posted by: M Fyfe | Nov 21, 07 08:59 PM

If you think you have slow internet, try using dial-up because you live in a rural area and that's the only connection you can get. The internet service providers in my area will not service small towns unless there are enough people interested in high speed internet access in that town. With the profits that they are making, you would think they would service ALL areas, and not just populated ones. Don't take your high speed internet for granted because there are people in rural areas wishing they had high speed and can't get it. Posted by: angela | Nov 21, 07 09:24 PM

Although I was unimpressed with the bashing by the CBC in this documentary, I can say that I am very happy with the speeds I receive from Bell. I have days that I am just under the 7mbps, but I also have days where I'm over this speed. I have had my service with a cable and telephone company. Sharing and location can always be an issue when it comes to providing an internet service, in the end, I chose Sympatico as my provider. They are reliable and faster compared to the competition. The one drawback is calling for technical assistance, and the language barriers with the call centres in India. Posted by: Happy BELL customer | Nov 21, 07 09:25 PM

I have the Rogers Extreme service here in Whitby. I'm quite happy with the speeds: Just tested @ 7868kb/s Down & 719kb/s up - and that's with my teenager using MSN, etc. upstairs on our home network. The thing that "cheeses" me off is that I signed up for an UNLIMITED service ... but not only does Rogers limit my speeds whenever they please, their "unlimited" service also limits how much I can download & upload per month. Posted by: K. Matsui | Nov 21, 07 09:45 PM

I just tested my speed. I have Rogers Express which offers UP TO 7.0 mbps download and UP TO 512 kbps upload. I tested at 8522 kbps download and 486 kbps upload. I feel good about that. For the record I recently switched from Bell due to connectivity and speed issues. I was sold a high speed package. After 7 months of slow speeds and outages, I was finally told that my "area" doesn't have the capacity for the high speed package I purchased. I switched the next day. Posted by: M Hill | Nov 21, 07 09:53 PM

I am in Saskatoon Saskatchewan, connected via Sasktel High Speed Classic. Classic alright, with a download speed of 598 kb/s and an upload speed of 168 kb/s. I can't even email them to complain: their server seems to be log jammed after the airing of your show! Fortunately, Shaw's server seems to be working fine, so I have contacted them to enquire about my options. Posted by: Tony Twardzik | Nov 21, 07 10:01 PM

I have been having an ongoing discussion with Sympatico over the slowness of my hi-speed. I should have been getting "up-to" 3Mbps for what I was paying. I was only getting about 437Kbps. After confirming I was too far from the Central Office, they downgraded me to the next lower service which now gives me approximately 1.010 Mbps. An improvement and a cost saving. I like others have been sold a bill of goods by Bell Sympatico. My only chance for higher speed is to try Rogers. Posted by: Don MacMillan | Nov 21, 07 10:08 PM

Edmonton AB, in the west end. Telus gives 183k down and 56k up. Let's just say I'm calling Shaw tomorrow. Posted by: Ev | Nov 21, 07 10:08 PM

Wouldn't it be more reasonable to have say a Bell customer test downloading a medium size file from the Bell webpage? Same goes for the other company's so telus from a telus page and etc? It didn't seem like this was done. However, marketplace is correct about location and the upgrades. I think simply asking people to go to the same website isn't the way since the up to speed the companies advertised really is about the speed from your house to company's server directly and not to some other location beyond that. Posted by: John | Nov 21, 07 10:10 PM

I'm on Bell's 7MB service in Toronto. Sorry to gloat, but my results were 6832Kb download and 782Kb upload. I switched from Rogers in May ... speed was not my friend with them :( Posted by: Ryan Patterson | Nov 21, 07 10:12 PM

Embarrassed to report 65 kb/s with 5MB/s service…thanks for nothing Shaw (literally) Posted by: RP | Nov 21, 07 10:12 PM

I could see on the show that the Rogers and Shaw guys were getting ~500KBs on the download and the Bell guy was getting only 50KBs or so. I have Bell and so got suitably worked up, went to Speedtest.net and it showed my speed as 907 kb/s which has got to be wrong. So I downloaded the Ubuntu iso like they do on the show from the closest mirror to me and got 148 KB/s... I think that it is virtually impossible to get an accurate idea of download speed over time - probably all of the providers are terrible and at the time of the test it just happened to be Bell's turn to suck the most. I sure wish I didn't need the Internet. Posted by: Steph | Nov 21, 07 10:22 PM

I Contacted Shaw when we moved into the condo to discuss our internet connection. Seems If I run a splitter from the outlet, the signal is so weak it boots us off. Shaw's answer was to remove the splitter because when it came to connection we sat on the "Fence" of what was a playable signal Techs have come and gone. Last we heard there was an open work order for other Techs to look at the system in the main housing area. Posted by: Gustavo McLachlan | Nov 21, 07 10:23 PM

I have Telus High Speed lite - advertised as 256Kb/s On average I get about 30Kb/s download speed. Right after the show I tried your test and got 256Kb/s download and even faster upload. Posted by: Mac | Nov 21, 07 10:28 PM

I’ve had Sympatico.ca High Speed for many years so I went to the Sympatico site to try and find out what I was paying for…not to be found. Funny that the Sympatico “My Internet Service” was unavailable (allows you to check you internet account usage. So I check out the marketing pages looking for a service I could downgrade to but they place limits on the number of bytes per month and as I’m in the technology field I tend to download mega bytes per day so that is not going to work. Hmm…Rogers Yahoo…I’m still mad at Rogers for the negative marketing scam they pulled in the 80s…(free preview of all these cable channels… but you had to cancel..or you paid after the preview period was over) Posted by: Chris Craig | Nov 21, 07 10:34 PM

I have high speed internet access from 295.ca. I first purchased a dial-up account from them for $2.95/mo - the price they still charge for unlimited dial-up access. Before that, I was paying $19.99/mo with Bell sympatico for the same service. I still have that dial-up account because I can use it remotely if I travel. They now have highspeed access over the phone lines in my area of Chelsea, but instead of going back to Bell, I have highspeed with 295 as well. Here are my test results: They say 3 Mbps and up to 5 Mbps (I pay $29.99 for that) and they provide me with 2.369 download and .580 mbps upload. It's not outside of what they advertise though - Bell offered to sell me either 3 Mbps for one price, and wanted to charge me more for up to 5 Mbps if I wanted it. As it turns out, my loyalty to 295 has rewarded me with a speed very close to what they can honestly deliver. Posted by: Pierre Laporte | Nov 21, 07 10:43 PM

I subscribe to Sympatico in St Thomas Ontario and pay for 5000 kbps. I constantly get 4330 kbps which works out to 87% of promised delivery. Which I am satisfied with considering other people's horror stories with Bell. However Sympatico's tech support (India) is enough to make a preacher swear. Posted by: Honest John | Nov 21, 07 10:55 PM

I tested with a connection to Portland, Maine. 4220 down and 650 up. Exactly what I expect in a 5 meg service. I have had Sympatico for years and it has been nothing but rock solid, consistent speeds. I live in Gatineau, QC in the Plateau. It is really too bad you didn't use my connection for your test, the results would have been quite different. Another piece of the pie to investigate is what technologies are being put in place to bring the customer closer to key equipment. There are billions being invested by many companies. Posted by: John Dallas | Nov 21, 07 11:04 PM

I'm on shaw's high speed extreme I (10mbps down 1/mbps up) and generally get that speed. I would steer clear of any copper based connectivity if you want speed. I'd also like to say this episode could've been done a lot better. Downloading Ubuntu releases from public servers is hardly scientific, and they didn't touch on traffic shaping certain protocols like bittorrent. Posted by: Jeremy | Nov 21, 07 11:08 PM

I am using Bell Aliant Ultra (up to 5 Mbps)in Lower Sackville Nova Scotia, postal code B4E XXX. I get a consistent 3800 kb/s dowload and 475 kb/s upload on your speedtest site. My line is provisioned for 4.5 Mbps download. I am supposed to be too far from the switch to attain this speed, but with persistence and about 4 service calls, this was attained by having Aliant trim the bi-taps off my line, replace the wire from the pole to my bulkhead and direct connect to my modem. I was told many times that the best they could do was offer me 2.5 Mbps even after all that. I insisted that they try provisioning me at various speeds starting at 7Mbps and scaling down each time for a few weeks each until I determined what settings had an optimum balance between speed and noise that would cause the line to drop. They insisted 3 was the best. I insisted 4.5 and it works great. I just did the itunes download at 465 kb/s in 1:30. This is pretty consistent. Unfortunately, the average consumer may not have the knowledge and patience I had to endure, to get this level of service. 3 houses away on the same plan, they get less than half the speed I do because they accepted the "up to" disclaimer which I did not. I am disappointed that Marketplace did not test Eastlink Cable and Aliant in the program. Eastlink is advertising 15 Mbps which may be the fastest in Canada. I have seen that speed at a friend's and I am tempted to switch since the price is the same as what I pay. Even with user congestion, the lowest speed my friend will see is still faster than my consistent 3.8 Mbps. Overall I am happy with Aliant, but Eastlink is tempting. Posted by: Dennis Kutchera | Nov 21, 07 11:10 PM

I have Shaw High Speed (up to 5mbps) in Kamloops BC. I tested my connection a few months ago and found I was reaching about 800kbps when I should have been getting 5Mbps. I phoned shaw at 11pm at night, spoke to tech support almost immediately, and they said that I had an old modem. They offered a new modem to me at no charge (I owned the old one). I tested it again, and ended up close to the advertised speed. I tested just now and have 4895kbps, or 98% advertised speed. No compaints here! Posted by: Matt | Nov 21, 07 11:20 PM

Did the test a few times with Rogers Yahoo and am getting 5-6 Mbps from London Ontario all across the USA. Only time I got a slow reading was when I was trying to test Canadian places...hmmm. Posted by: Dan | Nov 21, 07 11:37 PM

Using a 7 mbps connection from the Annex in Toronto...and solidly in the 2100dwnld and 650upld range. I loved the comment during the show about Bell's solution to a customer's complaint being to pay more money! I've had the same experience 3 times in the past 2 weeks. When a technician showed up on Monday to check the lines, he tried to leave without actually looking inside the phone box. Luckily my neighbour, an electrician, had already had a look at the wiring and pointed out that it wasn't grounded and that the contacts were corroded. After informed, the technician did rewire the outside box. The static on the phone line is gone; the intermittent dsl connection remains - it is just too bad that bell sent a phone tech when we had asked for a dsl tech. Posted by: M. Russell | Nov 21, 07 11:40 PM

I'm in Burnaby, BC and use Shaw (advertised at "up to" 5 mbps). I ran the test several times, starting just a few minutes after the show, for about 1/2 hour. I was please to see that I'm getting close to what I'm paying for. The results were between 4770 and 4828 download, 478 to 482 upload. What I am UNhappy with though, is the lack of "... including world class security Shaw secure" service for Macs. Shaw's flippant attitude was who cares about Mac users, there's too few of you to worry about. So I am paying for service that I'm not receiving. Posted by: Barb Lange | Nov 21, 07 11:49 PM

I found it interesting and a bit disconcerting that Erica the reporter was shown driving a car and talking on a cell phone at the same time. Hasn't it been shown that it is dangerous to talk on a hand held cell phone while driving? People in the media should think of themselves as role models! Posted by: Sue | Nov 22, 07 12:16 AM

Hello M Fyfe, If you don't mind me asking, who is your ISP? Posted by: Christina | Nov 22, 07 12:30 AM

Good program. I mostly agree with the conclusions, having done most of these sorts of tests myself over the last few years, and while I'm no fan of Bell's service you really need to try Sympatico (and any other ADSL provider as well) from different neighbourhoods. The one you chose is nearly the oldest in the city and the telephone wiring infrastructure, which directly affects speeds, is also the oldest. Cable ISPs are using a newer infrastructure even in these old neighbourhoods so the tests can be misleading. I found numerous instances/areas where Bell was faster than Rogers, the built up area around Bloor and Jarvis for example. Also worth mentioning is that there are a number of other smaller ADSL ISP's that offer the same service as Bell but are more forthcoming with any potential speed issues and will work harder to solve the problems. Posted by: Harvey Bushell | Nov 22, 07 07:31 AM

We live between 2 towns of roughly 15,000 each - Pembroke and Petawawa. All we can get is dialup. Many times during the day, we can't even access the internet and it is really slow. Middle of the night is good, though. Bell and I have a hate/hate relationship. AOL is good, unfortunately we have to use the old, old existing Bell lines that have static. Bell just said oh well, deal with it. Last week, they phoned me up and asked why I did not have high speed. I said check my address and his garbled accent said "Oh, I see you can't get high speed." Thats what happens when a Canadian company sends their business to India. Posted by: Linda | Nov 22, 07 12:24 PM

While I understand your requirement to identify and interrogate a 'bad guy' in every episode you air in an attempt to keep people interested enough to watch your show, I found too many holes in this week’s piece to sit back and idly let this one float by without comment. So as we know, DSL speeds are largely affected by distance to the central office or switching equipment. Curious why your Bell 'sample' group all live in the same neighborhood where they would obviously share the same kind of network performance from the same ISP. If I live too far away from the CO to get good speeds, stands to reason my neighbor with the same ISP is experiencing a similar slow down. Also curious why you decided not to demonstrate how during peak hours, the cable companies product slows down based on how many other customers are using the same network infrastructure at the same time. Anyway, per your usual formula, you were completely one sided and did perform proper experiments. Rather, you give minimal information and let your viewers get enraged over something they have not been fully informed about. Estimated network throughput aside (meaning the speeds you qualify for according to the ISP when you sign up by inputting your phone number), there are too many in house variables and sources of interference that the ISP would know nothing about. It IS up to the consumer to check their own speeds and adjust their plan accordingly. Not just initially after sign up, but spot check it occasionally thereafter to see if the network improves or degrades. Not impressed with your show last night. Granted, it’s not something that can easily be quantified in a 30 minute show, but you really should have focused more on the technical realities and less on finding some corporate VP to try and nail to the wall. But then again, that wouldn’t make very good TV now would it. Posted by: Doug | Nov 22, 07 01:20 PM

I live in a rural area, so I am unable to get high speed internet. I'm entirely happy with my service. Sure, I can't get wireless or anything like that, but I'm not going to die without it. For those of you who have high speed, I pity you. If your speed went up after this episode, it probably won't last long. Have fun! Posted by: Annelise Van Linden, 14 | Nov 22, 07 07:12 PM

While I enjoy Marketplace, the one thing that I can't stand is how conclusions are made using too few tests. My test results are shown below. It is clear that the location you are downloading from makes a large difference in your actual speeds. I'm not defending Bell (I've heard personally they're slow), however one-off tests really don't show anything. Marketplace's results would be better if they used a larger sample size (larger than 1). Any person that has taken any statistics classes knows that you can't make statements unless the sample size is reasonably large. In this case, it the testers should have downloaded many files at many times of the day, as well as using a few customers from each company. Also, it was apparent that the file being downloaded was from the same source. Was the bandwidth to the server large enough for this test? One of the testers mentioned that the download speed seemed to get faster near the end. This seems to happen after another tester completed the test. The thing with the internet is it is only as fast as the slowest link. Thus many different servers should have been used to create a more 'complete' conclusion on speed. In saying that, I agree with much of the hype around 'fast' service. Only 'power users' really need extreme services, not the average user. Posted by: Jeff | Nov 22, 07 08:33 PM

Congrats on exposing these internet providers. As far as I am concerned they are deliberately trying to defraud customers. I had a similar experience with sympatico a few years ago. Luckily, I have a computer savvy teenage son & was able to get bell to reduce the price since we were getting half the advertised speed. We have since switched to Videotron. Now I urge you to expose the cell phone companies for also misleading consumers with so called access fees & excessively complicated plans. Posted by: c spilberg | Nov 22, 07 09:12 PM

I have always tested my Internet speed with SaskTel and have always found it to be consistent. I don't work for SaskTel but I have always appreciated their customer service for all services they provide. I think Tony from Saskatoon should check his wiring making sure his DSL router is newer and has CAT5 wiring (the blue one). I live in an older home with older wiring but now has been since upgraded. It may help the speed by upgrading those items. Posted by: Shelby | Nov 22, 07 10:01 PM

I live in rural Nova Scotia but do get Ultra High internet service from Aliant/Sympatico. I am paying for up to 5MB/s. While connected wirelessly I got download speed of around 3700, but connected with a wire, with no other computer connected on the network (usually there are several connected at the same time, all sharing the internet) I am getting speeds in excess of my promised amount: 5155 download and 436 upload (not sure what I am supposed to get in upload). I usually upload a lot as I maintain and run several websites. Not bad. Was it this good before the program? I really don't know. Thanks for the research. Posted by: Ellie Kennard | Nov 23, 07 08:47 AM

I'm using sympatico's Basic Lite. I signed up with Bell because they were offering it for $20.00 a month all year. The speed test shows that I'm getting 135 kbps download and 16 kbps upload. I believe that Bell's Basic Lite gets "up to" 500 kbps download. After signing up, Bell started to bill me for extra internet services that I didn't want or ask for. I think it amounted to $10 or $15 a month more. If I didn't take the time to read my bills, I wouldn't have noticed. Another rant is the Tech support. Most of the time it is from India. Yes they speak English but not Canadian English. It is hit and miss with the help they provide. Sometimes I get the East Coast of Canada tech support and they provide great service! Posted by: Darryl | Nov 23, 07 09:21 AM

We've had Bell/Sympatico high speed about 10 years. Our history of customer service with them has been wildly inconsistent - ranging from complete incompetence (about 90% of the time) to excellent service (a call I placed this morning). The ONLY reason we stick with them is because we still have our initial high speed/long distance bundle which is a bargain. Posted by: Pat Kenney | Nov 23, 07 10:02 AM

Angela above is right. When dialup is your only option because you are in a rural area, complaints about high speed seem pithy, however, in our little rural area, we started our own high speed project with Telus leasing a fiberoptic line to us and our local Computer Smith doing the rest. It started with one tower and is going to wind up being several towers that service many small pockets of people in a rural area of central BC. My speeds are upwards of 5MBPS thanks to this project. Since Shaw, Rogers, Telus and Bell ignore small areas, perhaps more communities could bring it to themselves, like ours did. My beef with Telus was that I was paying MORE for pokey dialup than my daughter (who lives in nearby Kamloops) is paying for high speed! Posted by: Lorna | Nov 23, 07 10:18 AM

I work for Bell Sympatico and have Rogers internet service. If i was to use Bell for internet, I would only get 1.5 megs sync rate as I am too far from the central office. With Rogers, I get consistently fast 5 megs (mainly due to my router as I use wireless). As I was watching the report, I knew why some customers were not getting their speed. It's all about distance to the central office and if you are too far, you don't get your speed. Posted by: witheld | Nov 23, 07 07:10 PM

I did a quick test shortly after the show aired and i was amazed by the results 8469kbps download / 973kbps upload! Never before have I got such results, and I subscribe to Shaw's Xtreme Hi, which advertises "up to 10 Mbps." So is it just a coincidence that my numbers improved that significantly shortly after the broadcast? Great segment, great show. Posted by: Ed | Nov 23, 07 08:56 PM

With Teksavvy (first hop is Ottawa), I get 4314 / 634 to Toronto server and 3864/645 to Fenton, MI (shown as recommended server). I am located in Montreal. However, initially I was connected 3 km away and had a lot of noise and high attenuation. Once I started getting too many disconnects, I contacted my ISP and had myself moved to a remote ~500m away from my house and now get 5008/800 theoretical speed, with the actual speeds posted above. An advice I want to give those who have a slow speed AND too many disconnections: find a friend who is living in a better neighbourhood and is subscribed to a DSL ISP (does not matter which one) and borrow the DSL modem from your friend to test it on your phone line. Also, test your modem in your friend's house. Get the line stats for four cases (your modem in your house, friend's modem in your house, your modem in friend's house, friend's modem in friend's house) and present them to your ISP, so that Bell can know for sure that it IS your line problem. Posted by: Bobik (Montreal) | Nov 23, 07 11:07 PM

I'm in N.Delta, southeast of Vancouver. I use Delta cable or DCCNET. Other companies should use their business practice. They have one flat rate of $39.50/month or $34.50 if you buy the modem. No speed choices. They don't have an up-to speed, but just say that your speed will peak at speeds far in excess of 1.5mbps. I've tested it in the past and now tested it again 16 times after your show, from different servers, and have got fairly consistent results around 4700kbps or 4.7mbps, far higher than advertised. My computer is getting old too if that makes a difference. Tech support is 24/7 locally with a real person! I recently looked into a package deal through Telus, for phone, TV and internet, and during questioning of their speed choices, I managed to get out of their tech support guy, that most web sites won't allow you to download from them faster than 3mbps anyway, so no use paying for higher speed. I stayed with DCCNET for various reasons. They have also upgraded their lines to all fiber optics and are replacing everyone's modems with new Motorolas. The only drawback is that if I move out of the area I will have to choose another service provider. Posted by: Wayne | Nov 24, 07 06:22 AM

I'm with Rogers. No complaints. Excellent customer service. Of course, I am the only one my street with Rogers, so that does make a difference! Posted by: AngelaCW | Nov 24, 07 03:50 PM

I am a Rogers Hi-Speed Extreme customer in the Barrhaven neighbourhood in Ottawa. I am supposed to get "up to" 8.0 Mbps download and 800 Kbps upload. This afternoon's results from speedtest.net on the Toronto server yielded only 3.5 Mbps upload and a respectable 786 Kbps upload. These results are consistent with previous tests at various times of day. For the price I am paying for this top-end service, I would expect to consistently get at least 85% of the potential top speed. I certainly do not think that 44% is an acceptable delivery of value for the promised service. Posted by: Robert McKenney | Nov 24, 07 04:22 PM

I'm in Calgary and use Shaw. I have used other tests at other times and received 3K+ download speeds. Today (on a Saturday afternoon), it was only half of that (and this was the best of three tests): Just as a comparison, I ran the same test on an office machine at the University of Calgary, who uses Telus as their primary ISP but does not have any caps on usage. This was done near the same time as the above test. Again, I have seen faster at different times, but this is not uncommon. The upload cap is really the most remarkable and one not discussed in the story, since it does not affect most users. For me, a person who manages web sites and remote controls machines, upload caps are infuriating. Posted by: Anthony Reimer | Nov 24, 07 04:30 PM

I am with rogers and get the advertised speed as promised 90% of the time. While the report was enlightening I think you also did not explain adequately about bandwidth. For one thing there are two variables affecting speed, your bandwidth and the bandwidth of the server delivering the file. Example the server in Canada delivering Ubuntu is notoriously slow. Canonical's servers in England are three times faster, so the closest server is not always the fastest. Some servers also optimize highspeed over slower speed connections. Another thing your expert didn't point out is that for ADSL is that once past 1 km from the nearest switch, service degrades exponentially every 100 meters. When selecting Bell ask where the nearest switching station is, this will determine the speed you are likely to receive. Most apartment and condo complexes will get the advertised speed because they usually have their own switch station on premises. So if you are in a residential neighbourhood, buyer beware. Another thing that most people don't understand is that ISPs advertise their speeds in mb/sec but download speeds are indicated in KB/sec, the capitalized letter means it is bytes being measured not bits. Now one byte = 8 bits, but on the internet you add two more bits (a start and stop bit) so the speed you see needs to by mutiplied by 10 and then 1000 to actually evaluate the speed. So 500 Kb/sec is 500X10X1000 = 5,000,000 bits per second. Posted by: L. Lauzon | Nov 24, 07 05:15 PM

I live in downtown Calgary, an area densely populated with young professionals and no doubt Internet users. I'm not too sure what the numbers mean but I have an easy time downloading and no issues with my service. My download came in at 12513 kb's and 306 for upload. Posted by: Sam | Nov 24, 07 07:37 PM

I live in Campbell River and I feel pretty lucky that we've got high speed, they only had 10 high speed ports available last year. I've been overall pretty happy with the service and haven't had any major speed issues but I do have issues with the amount of unsolicited advertising and phone calls I get to upgrade my speed. Their advertising techniques keep promising higher, more reliable speeds and when you sign up you get screwed.... reminds me of a company called Bre-X, kept telling shareholders they found more and more gold deposits (all blatant lies) and then the company and most of its shareholders lost everything. Posted by: Kata | Nov 24, 07 08:35 PM

I'm in Montreal and just did the speed test. I have a Cable /Videotron account and averaged about 6600 down and about 750 up (they advertise as Download speed of 7 Mbps and upload speed of 820 Kbps.), and I am happy with the service for the most part. I believe this varies with the amount of "nodes", but I have been quite happy since I switched EVERYTHING from Bell. For what I paid 18 months ago with Bell (nearly $90 month), I also get Digital Cable (a modest package) along with High Speed Internet and basic land line phone (the e-mail phone messaging is amazing BTW) Posted by: Anthony | Nov 24, 07 08:39 PM

I am happy with with the results though I am paying for the extra speed. My wife worked from home and needed a consistent connection to keep logged in to the work servers. When we first bought the service from Shaw, we had to call them a number of times and had technicians visit twice so that Shaw could tweak our connection before we could get this speed. Posted by: Don | Nov 24, 07 09:26 PM

I am a former user of Bell High Speed which was nowhere near the speed as advertised, after dealing with Bell tech support on 5 different occasions and 2 modem changes I switched to Rogers High Speed Express. The pricing was similar but the results are like night vs day. Rogers is so much quicker than Bell, my current speeds via Speedtest are 6966 kb/s download and 509 kb/s upload, not too bad. There are times when internet traffic in my neighbourhood slows down the internet connection but they do not occur too often to concern me. Here is a link to my speed test done this morning. I should add that Bell admitted to me that the slow connection was probably due to the distance I am from their "high speed" equipment, I could have saved quite a bit of money by using one of their slower services for 2 years vs their Sympatico High Speed. Posted by: Ian Hackett | Nov 25, 07 10:49 AM

After waching the show last night I decided to try the and test my speed. I have never really experienced any long delays when downloading with Cogeco, so I was currious to see if I was acctually getting fast down load speeds and the number confirm I am. I got 3490 kps download and 609 kps upload I believe this is a good number. Thank you for looking out for the consumer as you always do! Posted by: Damien Ifill | Nov 25, 07 12:01 PM

True to form, Aliant/Sympatico (a Bell Company) has been trying to upgrade my service for years by extolling the virtues of how an improved package could improve my speed. The fact is four kilometres is the maximum range from company switching equipment allowable to receive any kind of improvement. Aliant sales do not tell the prospective customer this integral piece of information. A recent ping test using your recommended test-service shows a download speed of 1284 kb/s and an upload speed of 371 kb/s, and this within view of downtown Halifax! I won’t complain however, because I have family living in Nova Scotia who can’t even access internet service! Posted by: Dale Wilson | Nov 25, 07 12:01 PM

I'm on top of the world with the highest speed posted yet. Ran my test a few days after your show aired and this is my best of the "speedtests". Being a bit of a techy I am privy to what's going on behind the black curtain and after doubling my speed on my subsequent test (and most posters said the same thing) I am suspect that my provider (as all are doing) is using what's called a "cache server" to keep a copy of all requested data, files, webpages, etc. locally on their systems to fill successive requests for the same data. Peer-to-peer is also grinding the internet to a fine powder with all of the downloading of MP3s to entire movies and it "is" common knowledge that ISPs are capping download rates to throttle-back the data flow to everyones machines now. "Bit-Torrents" are huge in popularity & size and there is only so much room in that pipeline to serve an ever increasing demand so it is also pushing to the limits. There are so many ways to increase speeds with simple tweaks that can help too. But as your show did prove "you are only as fast as your weakest link". There is an obvious one and that's to have a powerful enough computer to be able to handle the flow of data and adjust the default settings of the operating system. I was chagrined to see "out of the box" notebooks being used for your test knowing just how poorly they are set-up from the get go... Micro$oft Windoze is just terrible in any flavor with it being such a bloated OS trying to "do it all", all at the same time. Posted by: Scott Bishop | Nov 25, 07 12:55 PM

I'm using Rogers in Whitby (north, east). I've just ran a download speed of 6852 and an upload speed of 504 kbs...but I'm sure this is because I spent the last three years complaining about the speed to Rogers. (My wife works from home and needs constant VPN access). They have replaced my 6 year old modem and did something to boost the signal to my house, so we are happy for now. Posted by: Darryl | Nov 25, 07 01:31 PM

Ran the test Sunday at noon in False Creek Vancouver. Shaw delivered 910kb/s down and 461 kb/s up. I've seen better performance in the past for Shaw high-speed. Though my speed was slow today, reliability has been good. It would be interesting for CBC to investigate what commercial clients use. Instead of buying services that call for speeds, "up to", commercial customers use contracts that specify minimum performance specifications. They are called SLAs or Service Level Agreements. Instead of defining the max, these agreements define the minimum service levels, below which penalities are paid by the ISP. Posted by: Phil | Nov 25, 07 03:37 PM

Really enjoyed your story on ISP speed. We left Bell for its poor products and support - went back to Rogers. It got me curious as to whether we were getting the "up to 8Mbps" for their Hi-Speed Extreme service. I tested mine and got over 6Mbps dnload and 772 Mbps upload. I've been happy with Rogers' service. It rarely lets me down. My brother-in-law and father-in-law are still with Bell. They're ready to switch. Posted by: Eugene | Nov 25, 07 04:49 PM

Tested today, Sunday, as a Shaw customer, got 4862 kb/s download and 490 upload in North Vancouver. Was having terrible intermittent service from Shaw for first few months of the year - I called and after two service calls and the full replacement of the hardware/wiring on the pole outside my house, my connection and speed has been fabulous ever since. Make them check their own equipment! Am a very satisfied Shaw customer now. Posted by: Holly | Nov 25, 07 07:07 PM

I am located in Oshawa Ont. and am paying Bell sympatico for "UP-TO" 10 mps. Unfortunately all I am getting is 2570 bps download, and 673 bps upload. I also called up a few of my computer friends located in different locations throughout Oshawa, Whitby and even Belleville to take the same test under the same conditions at the same time all of whom are with Bell. And out of 8 locations my speed was second best. I guess we all will be calling the cable guy tomorrow. Posted by: Phillip Hovinga | Nov 25, 07 11:46 PM

I live in Red Deer about halfway between Calgary and Edmonton Alberta. Westpark is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the city so has old wiring and I can even see power fluctuations in the street light in the parking lot. I use Telus High Speed. The test results were 972 kb/s for download, and 224 kb/s for upload, on the second run of the test(the first run was not as fast). I normally get around 150-160 kb/s (usually very consistently) when I'm downloading large zipped files. Posted by: Doug | Nov 26, 07 12:17 AM

For all those users using Internet Explorer, please be sure to disable all the proxy settings (Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings). I've found this will yield a more accurate result since some providers will use a proxy like Shaw for example. My speeds before disabling it were 3197/315kbps. After disabling it the speeds shot up to 5947/479kbps. I'm in Edmonton on Shaw on a 5mbps connection and a speed test yielding 5947 means I'm getting more than I'm paying for. Normal consistent rates I get are around 4100kbps but I find the speed tests will vary depending what server you check. SpeedTest.net in the past has not been very reliable for me. I also found that many of the test servers won't return accurate results if a user has a connection 5mbps or higher. Posted by: Nathan | Nov 27, 07 03:17 AM

I did the test running on a wireless internet connection and am 100 miles from the server. Also had two other connections going in the house that were hard wired running as well. Average was 3182 and 660. Figured that was not bad on a DSL connection. The service provider is Nexicom in Millbrook/Peterborough area. Posted by: Clark | Nov 27, 07 01:07 PM

Thanks for the informative show. I ran the speed test under various configuration - I have a small home network. I use Telus High Speed (up to 3 mbps). The fastest upload I was able to get was 71% of this and generally I had around 70%. This is slightly better than the Telus competitor featured in your show. I think he registered 67%. My uploads were generally at the 100% level. Interesting to me was that I tested a very old Pentium II under Linux and Firefox - a real clunker and yet it registered my 3rd fastest download - 70% of the 'up to' speed. Narrowly beating it were my new iMac and a fairly new Windows laptop. Posted by: Maurice | Nov 27, 07 01:24 PM

I live in a small town north of Toronto, Ontario called Coldwater. I live in an area that Bell does not service, (Yes they do exist) I pay for 3Meg service from my independent phone company (Amtelecom). I get a constant speed of about 2.7 Mbps. The fact they have a local tech and great customer service keeps me from switching to Rogers. Posted by: Tim | Dec 13, 07 06:30 PM

What a great show! When I first moved to high speed, I did a lot of research into my location relative to the CO for Telus highspeed. As I could see the Telus CO, seven blocks away, I went with Telus. They were decent, but I wasn't happy with some other aspects, like reliability and customer service. I'm on Shaw now, paying for the 10 Mb/s service. I rarely ever get that, of course, but the total monthly download cap for the regular service used to be pretty low for someone who is often downloading and uploading Debian Linux distributions and numerous RAW format photos. I do realize the technical reasons for why a single download might be slow. An internet connection is only as fast as the slowest route a packet takes. However, I'm having huge reliability issues with Shaw, and it took five service technicians on three trips to figure out my last problem. I've got more techs coming tomorrow to try to find out why my Shaw phone doesn't work. And when you don't have service, you have to call back several times to get a credit (at to-the-second rates, starting at when they declare a problem, not when the problem started). So you might not be able to use the internet or cable TV or your phone all day, but all you'll get is a $0.75 credit--after waiting on the phone for forty minutes. But they have a lot of money to run anti-Canadian Television Fund ads that indirectly attack the CBC. I wonder why, when they're investigated on shows like Marketplace. But I digress. :) Posted by: Mae | Dec 29, 07 05:09 PM

As a technician for Bell, I see the same thing every day. People who have trouble with their service and do not call for help. They whine and complain and then switch to the competition. Recently I had a customer who had a dial-up connection and was having trouble with it. She was getting 9kbps. She called her dial-up ISP. They had her plug a phone into her dedicated dial-up line. The line was in severe disrepair (static and noise). The ISP suggested she call Bell for repair. I visited her and discovered that the line she was on (outside her home) was grounding out. I moved her phone number from that line to a good line to route around the damaged section of cable. After testing her connection, she is now receiving 48kbps on a dailup line. (A 30 minute repair) The moral of the story is: If you are not getting what you are paying for and the "over the phone" tech support is not providing answers or results, demand that a telephone/DSL technician be sent to your home. There are many things we can do to repair a connection. We just need to know about it. Also: Bell is checking phone lines (probably as a result of the broadcast). They check a modem and then compare its performance with others in the area. If it is not performing as it should, a DSL technician is dispatched to look at the lines. If the problem proves into a residence, the tech knocks on the door to gain access or to schedule a time for access. The tech will make all repairs necessary to improve Bell's service for free. The one of the technicians in my area that is doing these types of calls has 20+ years experience, has resolved several problems and made many customers very happy. PS: Bell has admitted to employees that using India for tech support was a bad idea and is taking steps to get out of India. (without breaking contracts, creating fines and international lawsuits) Posted by: Bell Technician | Dec 30, 07 01:05 PM

as someone that actually works at an ISP and deals with calls from the likes of many of the people posting comments for this article, I must say, your "tests" do not prove much of anything. for starters, speedtest.net rarely gives accurate results. and if any of you actually read your contracts you'd likely have a better understanding of why speeds are listed as "up to" a certain amount. the internet is a shared platform, and as one of the few informed posters previously mentioned, is only as fast as the slowest link between you and your desired information. speed test sites ONLY indicate the speed at that specific moment between yourself and their server. just like how a single car accident on the highway can cause backups for kilometers, any issues along your data's routed path can slow you down. and that doesn't even begin to get to the issue of how expensive bandwidth actually is. if you are insistent on getting guaranteed speeds, there are providers that can do it, just prepare to pay upwards of $1500 per month for as little as 1.5 megabits per second. Posted by: actually in the know | Feb 8, 08 04:03 PM

I have just completed the test for the only high speed server in our area, Aliant, and found that it was 1.3MB. A little over a tenth of their promised speed. Worst thing though is that I am less than 100 meters from their modem. Pity anyone who lives further away from the modem than I do. Posted by: Michael Marsh | Feb 21, 08 12:09 PM

From Twillingate, NL on an Eastlinlk cable system. My download is 697 kb/s. Upload is 22 kb/s. From a server in Bangor, ME. Ping is 2665ms. Posted by: Terry Hollett | Jun 21, 08 04:13 PM

Saint John, NB; Duck Cove neighbourhood; Aliant: 3117 up, 382 down. Service is supposed to be up to 5000 kb/s Posted by: Mark Hannah | Jun 21, 08 07:07 PM

Internet Provider: Rogers, Hi-Speed Extreme. Location: Toronto, ON. Bathurst&Finch ave. Apartment building. Results: Down 6189 kb/s Up994 kb/s Ping 20ms Posted by: zgierzanin | Jun 21, 08 07:20 PM

My results on speedtest.com showed a download speed of 141 kb/s and an upload speed of 67 kb/s. Maybe I'm just confused by all the numbers, but that seems a bit off!! Posted by: Lynne Sargent | Jun 21, 08 08:39 PM

Videotron Ltee (cable company) in Montreal is giving me what I ask for: 9306 kb/s ~ 10 Mb/s on download stream 829 kb/s ~ 1 Mb/s on upload stream 100 GB of up and down stream of data per months The only issue is the price. On it's own, it is not less than 70 $ + tax. I think it is too expensive, it could be way cheaper Downtown Montreal Quebec Posted by: frederic | Jun 22, 08 11:40 AM

I'm in Thunder Bay, ON and have a DSL connection with TBayTel (a municipally owned telephone company). Testing the connection gave a download speed of about 4300kbps and upload speed of about 400kbps. Both are somewhat close to what they advertised (up to 5000kbps for download). No major and few minor issues with this ISP (so far). Great story on internet speed. Posted by: R. Dubyk | Jun 22, 08 11:41 PM

Tested from Calgary (Evanston, a very North Calgary community) after seeing your replay of this story for the first time. Generally been happy with Shaw since I started using Shaw high speed when I was living in Victoria, around 1998. 4137 kbps down, 493 kbps upload (3am local time) about what I expected and usually find I get. Posted by: Jamie Fisher | Jun 23, 08 05:32 AM

I have two Differn't companys to Review. My parents are divorced, so I have two differn't internet connects and they happen to be from two differn't companys, and also VDSL and Cable. For my dads House it is Hooked up with Shaw Cable. We are supposed to get up to 5Mb Upload and 512 kb Upload. I get 4932kb/s constantly, and 464 kbs upload. So for that I am happy. With My moms internet Service is with MTS. We have this thing called VDSL where the television and internet come in by the same line. Before we got tv service from mts we were not actually told the speeds we were supposed to get, and never thought to ask, so we got around 4302kbs and 502 kbs upload. Thats was pretty good as it was only something like $30/month bundled with wireless. When we got tv which made is VDSL instead of just Dsl they must of upgraded us because speed test shows I have way faster internet for the exact same price. I know get 9423kbs download and 1720 upload. So that is pretty good seeing that it is the exact same price. I have heard from people that mts pumps out 15 Mb into your home for TV and internet, so I guess what is left is for the internet. I am not sure if this is 100% true or not, but I am still Happy. I currently live in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Posted by: Tyler Wilks | Aug 8, 08 01:01 AM

I live in southwest Nova Scotia and I can only get dial-up where I live. Try dealing with 18 kps. Then it disconnects and you have to dial again. And at peak hours, Aliant throttles dial-up so that I only actually have 10% utilization which means 1.8 KILOBYTES per second. You don't look at pictures. That is out of the question. And forget watching any kind of video. It would take five years for it to load! Sometimes it takes over five minutes just to see the yahoo homepage ( without images ). And I'm paying 29.95 per month for this crap!! Posted by: Jonathan Smith | Aug 15, 08 03:42 PM

I'm in Sydney, NS and I'm have Eastlink Hi-Speed 15 and I tested to the Montreal server. The speed I recieved are as follows: Download@15037kb/s and an Upload@674kb/s, so I believe I am getting my moneys worth!?!? Posted by: Joe McLean | Sep 4, 08 02:55 AM