**Cue deep and engaging announcer voice**

Imagine a product so incredible, that you can’t even fathom it’s greatness.  imagine internet so fast, that you can’t even use it for anything like…downloading.  Imagine a corporate policy so rigid, that you can’t even customize your hardware!

Imagine….SASKTEL HIGH SPEED INTERNET!

Yes, I have a serious gripe and Shaw’s about to benefit for it.  The worst part of it all is that I’ve been tolerating the failure of Sasktel to fix their service shortcomings for…oh I dunno…a year and a half or so?  Anyone know what 2WIRE is?  A company that makes substandard computer hardware.

Yeah, one of those or something very close.  It’s called a wireless gateway and is intended to allow Sasktel the ability to configure your modem remotely.  It’s also supposed to deliver internet to your home computers either via a wired connection or wireless connection.

Many moons ago, Sasktel decided to contract with 2WIRE to provide wireless gateway technology for their high speed internet customers.  these gateways are intended to be comprehensive solutions for both the customer and the service provider in delivering seamless home network solutions to internet users.  Unfortunately, it falls far short of the mark.

When I first experienced a problem, it was when the 2WIRE wireless gateway modem was introduced to our home.  When downloading files or using the web in a slightly intensive fashion, the modem would shut off, restart and sputter back to life.  If this were to happen every few days or so, it would be tolerable but at times, it was happening in intervals of less than a full minute for 10 minutes straight or however long it took for me to give up on using the web for a few hours.

Thankfully, a technician thought of a solution.  It seems the 2WIRE gateway was only good for so much traffic all at once.  If it was forced to deal with too much at once, it would shut off and go to all to hell.  the solution was to replace the 2WIRE gateway with an older Westel modem that was previously used by Sasktel.  Another line would be used with a 2WIRE gateway to deliver our Sasktel MAX television service.

In the end, this actually worked out perfectly.  We had high speed service that suffered no interruptions, wireless internet was delivered through my own wireless router attached to the Westel modem and our Max Service worked well enough though it sometimes had the signal interrupted as the 2WIRE gateway crapped out.  All in all, it was tolerable and our primary concern being the internet, it was all good.

Now jump ahead a bit to when Sasktel upgraded their television set top boxes.  Eventually, a Sasktel tech came to our home to replace the old boxes.  I thought that’s all he was there for but no.  Apparently, he figured that our “old technology” on the desk being the Westel modem should be replaced and our second line for internet axed.  Without asking anyone why the setup was as it was, the dude yanked our Westel modem, disconnected the second line and put all our services through one 2WIRE gateway again.

Needless to say, I was a little miffed but I noticed the gateway was a different model than the one we had problems with before.  I bit the  bullet and figured we should at least see if it was alright.  shortly after, I was on the phone with Sasktel again demanding my old Westel setup with two lines.  wouldn’t you know it, a policy had been developed to prohibit this practice.  No I wasn’t goin to get a westel modem and no I wasn’t going to get a second line for my internet services.

Now we’ve had techs out here again looking at the set up and the best recommendation we can get is to not use our high speed internet as high speed internet.  we even had a guy up here in Saskatoon from Regina to look into it but we still have crappy internet service and no follow up calls to resolve the problem.  Normally I wouldn’t expect follow up calls but I’m the one that’s been calling for well over a year, I figure the ball is in their court now and they don’t seem to be all that concerned about this.  I’m tired of being the one to initiate contact over this issue.

The last time I talked to a customer service rep, i got this gem or close to it.

“Well, what I normally suggest to customers like you is to set a limit on your download programs so it doesn’t overload the gateway.”

Uhh…isn’t that asking me to use my high speed internet at not such a high speed?  What’s the point of having high speed internet service if I have to use it like high speed light?

“I’m sorry sir but the modem can’t handle so much traffic.  If you limit your download speeds, you should be able to use the internet normally.”

But don’t you get that I’m using the web to download quite often and use streaming media?  Isn’t that normal or is there something I’m not aware of in your TOS?

“I’m just saying that if you limit your network traffic, you shouldn’t experience problems.”

But…do you…I…ARRG!

*Click*

Well hey, I know I’m not a customer service specialist but I kinda figured that if I paid for high speed Internet service, I would actually be able to use it as High Speed service rather than high speed light.  if I wanted something that acted like it was 5X faster than dial up, that’s what I would have asked for.

I’m sold something advertised as being as fast as 1 Megabyte per second (10 Mega bits) and it craps out at speeds of 150 Kilobytes per second or about 1/7th the advertised speed.  when I call to complain, I’m told that my high speed connection advertised and rated at 10 Megabits per second can’t actually be used because of the hardware I’m using…so use it slower please.

What?

Perhaps most aggravating right now is that even when I’m not downloading a large file, (Say like after I purchase a digital copy of the game, Tropico) I still experience service interruptions.  As the family is using the web, suddenly all of us notice that web pages refuse to load for a minute or two.  This is terrible service.

Screw Sasktel.  All my services will be switched to Shaw Cable including my home phone service.  I’m a pretty tolerant guy but putting up with this stupidity for over a year, expecting it to maybe be fixed, is just too much.

P.S.
Sasktel, your website sucks too.  No time to go on at length…it just does.

UPDATE Jun’ 22nd, 2010:

It seems that this particular blog post of mine consistently gets anywhere from 3-10 visits per day.  I’m pretty happy about that.  I figured since I have had Shaw Cable services for television, phone and Internet, I would mention how we’re coping with those services.  Frankly, all of us in the family are very happy with the switch.

Our Internet no longer suffers service interruptions.  Download speeds are throttled but not so as to make it terribly slow.  I think when downloading a torrent, an initial burst of up to 5.0 Mbps followed by a constant speed that varies from 150-300 Kbps is entirely comfortable.  While downloading a torrent or other large digital file, streaming media does not suffer in any fashion.  This is extremely desirable compared to Sasktel’s 2Wire gateway technology faltering when constant downloads at speeds as low as 50 Kbps were maintained.

Home phone service is reasonably priced into our bundle and we have no reason to dislike it.

Our cable service is good as well and as a bonus, we managed to find a package that suits the family’s wants as well as save us some money beyond the promotional pricing period.

We are very happy with the switch and I’m happy to demonstrate what market competition is all about.  Sasktel’s Internet service caused us no small amount of headaches and their inability or unwillingness to solve the problem drove us away as customers in this home.  If Sasktel ever improves their services, perhaps we’ll consider switching back should Shaw ever cause us problems but for now, it looks like we’ll be here for a good long while.