THE HORROR OF ROGERS “ULTIMATE” INTERNET

How is your Internet access these days? We “upgraded” to Rogers’ priciest Ultimate plan 1.5 months ago and have periodic problems. The speed is inconsistent and access has been intermittent the last three days. I can’t even run SpeedTest.net. The usual steps of unplugging/replugging the equipment hasn’t helped.

Here’s another example of the risk of innovation.

Previous Plan

Our Hi-Speed Extreme Plus plan had downloads of 25 Mbps, maximum 125 GB. In August, we got upgraded to 32 Mbps and 150 GB for a few days. The faster speed made a noticeable difference and seemed "just right". In September, that became our normal plan ... except now everything seemed sluggish.

What happened?

We had a rental wireless modem for $7 per month. The range was lousy compared to our previous wireless N router. As a compromise, we turned the Rogers gear into a wired modem and connected to our own wireless router. We’ve done this for years. It works well but we were paying Rogers for wireless services we were not using and did not need.

Costco To The Rescue

While vacationing in the US in late August, we bought a Motorola Docsis 3 modem, the fastest available. The price was $75 at Costco. After returning home, we tested it for several days. The results were excellent ... until I returned our rental modem to Rogers. Service slowed down. I thought this was due to the back to school crowd or technical problems. We waited patiently for weeks.

Consequences

I called Rogers and found that we'd been put on an ancient plan with 18 Mbps and 95 GB/month. We're still paying the same $70/month but losing 14 Mbps and 55 GB per month! That's crazy. By upgrading, we ended with less. Using convoluted logic, the rep explained we weren’t paying more because of price hadn’t gone up.

This was the consequence of returning the Rogers equipment. We were not told at the time. We could only get the previous service if we were willing to pay an extra $7/month to rent Rogers equipment we clearly didn't need.

Fastest

I asked if I could upgrade to Ultimate which is 50 Mbps and 250 GB per month. This costs $100/month plus $7/month wireless modem rental plus tax. In the past, this plan required digital cable. That's a nonstarter since we don't even have a TV: we use Netflix, mobile devices and a projector.

This time, I was told that I could upgrade and did. We couldn’t get the published plan, though. We’re on a faster backbone that isn’t available everywhere. The rep put us on an unadvertised plan: 75 Mbps and 200 GB/month.  Faster is better but why chop usage by 50 GB? Google is piloting 1000 Mbps and unlimited usage via fiber optics. That’s forward-thinking.

Rogers Ultimate is inconsistent as others have reported. Sometimes great. Other times sluggish. Maybe it’s time to call tech support again.

		Speed Tests 75Mbps? VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Links

• What’s up with Rogers’ high speed Internet (Ellen Roseman, moneyville.ca, Oct 21, 2011)
• Very slow Ultimate (Rogers forums)
• Ultimate super slow at Bloor/Avenue (DSLreports.com)
• The right way to view Netflix in Canada
• The folly of the Rogers/Bell attack ads
• The risk of innovation

Podcast 143 (4:53)

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PS How is your Internet access these days?