daxxcat wrote:Dan Skunk wrote:Other providers go over Bell lines anyway. There's no escape.
Lines yes! But not to their servers no.... humm... i wonder....
Bell's line's, Bell's servers.
CanDSL and all of the other DSL alternatives in Ottawa are 'DSL Resellers'. They have basicly 'bought time' on Bell's networks at a bulk discount and are reselling it for less. This is similar to how third party long distance providors work. They buy time from a the company that owns the network and just resell it for less.
This can get you a better DEAL on your service but if you are having issues on a technical front, these issues are not going to go away. You are still on Bell's network from modem to trunk and everything inbetween.
DSL and Cable internet are not like dialup where you just phone a straight shot between you and your providor. You're connection is going to a box that's probably on your block or not much farther away, where it's the transfered to a more substancial connection, goes back to the main servers and feeds into the major trunks of the internet. Only two companies have laid down the infrastructure for that, Bell and Rogers. Any other ISP is just leasing time on that infrastructure.
You'll also quite possibly get better technical support from a major company than a smaller company. Bell and Rogers have HUGE ammounts of resources. Smaller DSL companies can have smaller and less compotent technical support staff and as they don't OWN the network, if something on that is damaged all they can do is call the company they're leasing from and ask them to fix it for them.
You should also note that Bell implimented traffic shaping on all DSL Resllers on it's lines. So you're getting shapped either way. The only thing you'll be getting differently is a different logo on your bill and a different bandwidth up/down limit.