Canada loves it’s monopolies. I can’t believe that Shaw deal went through – the government literally will not allow us to have more than 3 telecommunications companies. It’s ridiculous.
Canada was literally, actually, no shit created by corporations for the purpose of facilitating the extraction of value from human and natural resources by corporations. It genuinely exists to exploit us.
I’ve been with Start dot CA for a few years and following their sale to Telus, I’ve been seriously considering switching to Teksavvy. This is tragic. Are there any good ones left? Our country is about to have literally no options apart from the big three.
I use Coextro. Just some small company operating out of Mississauga. I wouldn’t call them amazing, but they try their best. At the end of the day they are really still at the mercy of Bell or Rogers (depending on if you go dsl or cable). They are smaller so they are likely a bit safer for now from being consumed by the duopoly.
I had Rogshaw come to the door yesterday pushing their merger high-speed promo. Hopefully Teksavvy doesn’t get gobbled up by the three-headed Robelus. Sad day indeed.
TekSavvy is the last remaining large internet wholesale provider, as others have been snapped up by bigger rivals in what independent ISPs describe as a challenging regulatory environment.
Roughly half a dozen independent ISPs have been sold since February of 2022
I was a big Teksavvy fan. Sooner or later though I had enough of their pricing. Beetween 1.5x to 2.0x for the same package compared to other independant ressellers. I guess I wasn’t loyal enough.
Now we know why. The other resellers were either running at a loss, trying to get subs while looking to get acquired by ROBeLUS, or they were already owned by ROBeLUS and so had dramatically lower costs as a result. These are some strategies for killing a competitor.
There are other independent resellers? I think Teksavvy was the last one, and I was sticking with them to support them, because they have been good for me for 18 years.
Rogers keeps sending people to the door. I keep telling them I have a rule, which is NEVER ROGERS, after my experiences with their customer support.
I’ve been with Lightspeed for years. When I did my research, there were lots. The issue will be that Teksavvy was the largest, and took on a bit of a leading role in advocating for cheaper Internet access in Canada.
A lot of the smaller resellers tend to be fairly local as well.
Depends on where you are. There is CanCom which is a distriputel? I think distributor. When I had them their customer support was excellent but believe only available in the west.
I used to be on Distributel proper, not as bad customer support as Rogers but it was pretty bad. Currently with Coextro (I know nothing of their corporate structure though) and their customer support has been as good as Teksavvy’s in my experience.
Their pricing was forced on them by the CRTC raising the rates independent ISPs have to pay the big 3 for wholesale services. CRTC must have known this would drive independent ISPs out of business, but they did it anyway. They seem to serve the big corporations, not the people of Canada.
One would think that the current Liberal CRTC would be better at maintaining competition than the previous Conservative CRTC, and yet here we are. start.ca is now telus, and teksavvy is soon to be… Rogers? Bell? Viacom?
Fuck it, bring on Starlink!
It’s sad when I could likely get faster and more reliable internet connected to a satellite than over cables hooked directly to my house. You’d think living in a more major city in a sprawling suburban residential area would get you reasonably reliable internet, but not even that is the case. Is it too much to ask CRTC to allow some competition?!?!
I was with TekSavvy for a long time but they were getting worse. I Switched to Oxio https://oxio.ca which is cheaper and faster than TS was. It’s a brand for Cogeco.
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This is a very sad news. I was rooting for them to be the last standing ISP that’s not part of the big tech.
Why the fuck does the government keep allowing competition to be snapped up by the big 3???
Rhetorical question i guess… But wtf. Do your job… Where are the antitrust regulations in this country? I am not a lawyer
Canada loves it’s monopolies. I can’t believe that Shaw deal went through – the government literally will not allow us to have more than 3 telecommunications companies. It’s ridiculous.
Canada was literally, actually, no shit created by corporations for the purpose of facilitating the extraction of value from human and natural resources by corporations. It genuinely exists to exploit us.
Hudson’s Bay Company remembers
IIRC they owned most of not all of the land from Hudson’s Bay down to, if not including central Ontario, Toronto & Ottawa etc
For context, remember that the Competition Bureau tried to block the Rogers-Shaw merger and was overridden by the courts. So continuing consolidation is a problem that won’t be fixed easily.
I’ve been with Teksavvy for nearly 15 years. This is a sad, sad day.
Same. They’re not just an ISP. They’re strong consumer advocates, bordering on activists. This is terrible.
I’ve been with Start dot CA for a few years and following their sale to Telus, I’ve been seriously considering switching to Teksavvy. This is tragic. Are there any good ones left? Our country is about to have literally no options apart from the big three.
I use Coextro. Just some small company operating out of Mississauga. I wouldn’t call them amazing, but they try their best. At the end of the day they are really still at the mercy of Bell or Rogers (depending on if you go dsl or cable). They are smaller so they are likely a bit safer for now from being consumed by the duopoly.
Not any big ones. Maybe locally to you.
I’ve been with Lightspeed for years. They’re based in Burnaby though, so I don’t know if they are available Canada wide.
I had Rogshaw come to the door yesterday pushing their merger high-speed promo. Hopefully Teksavvy doesn’t get gobbled up by the three-headed Robelus. Sad day indeed.
What industry turmoil?
the only turnmoil is the TPIA. When the wholesale rate (regulated by the CRTC) is higher than the retail rate…
But the corruption of our Government[1] is right in our face.
[1] it’s corruption, not incompetent. Also it is pan-partisan. Whichever would be at the helm would be paid for by the telecartel.
From the article
Personally I wouldn’t call that turmoil. I’d call it industry consolidation.
Consolidation can be tumultuous; but I’m just citing the article. They go into much further depth about the situation.
Not going to be long until we see the return of tiny data caps with more frequent price increases.
This is a very sad day.
Oh shit, not good. They’ve been the one bright spot in a sea of ISP bleakness.
I’ve been with them for nearly 10 years now. Stuck with them out of principle even though the speed/price weren’t as good as I could get elsewhere.
This seriously sucks, I’m so tired of a small handful of corporations owning every aspect of my life.
I was a big Teksavvy fan. Sooner or later though I had enough of their pricing. Beetween 1.5x to 2.0x for the same package compared to other independant ressellers. I guess I wasn’t loyal enough.
Now we know why. The other resellers were either running at a loss, trying to get subs while looking to get acquired by ROBeLUS, or they were already owned by ROBeLUS and so had dramatically lower costs as a result. These are some strategies for killing a competitor.
There are other independent resellers? I think Teksavvy was the last one, and I was sticking with them to support them, because they have been good for me for 18 years.
Rogers keeps sending people to the door. I keep telling them I have a rule, which is NEVER ROGERS, after my experiences with their customer support.
I’ve been with Lightspeed for years. When I did my research, there were lots. The issue will be that Teksavvy was the largest, and took on a bit of a leading role in advocating for cheaper Internet access in Canada.
A lot of the smaller resellers tend to be fairly local as well.
Depends on where you are. There is CanCom which is a distriputel? I think distributor. When I had them their customer support was excellent but believe only available in the west.
I used to be on Distributel proper, not as bad customer support as Rogers but it was pretty bad. Currently with Coextro (I know nothing of their corporate structure though) and their customer support has been as good as Teksavvy’s in my experience.
Their pricing was forced on them by the CRTC raising the rates independent ISPs have to pay the big 3 for wholesale services. CRTC must have known this would drive independent ISPs out of business, but they did it anyway. They seem to serve the big corporations, not the people of Canada.
https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2023/02/25/canadas-small-internet-providers-and-choice-are-dying-at-the-hands-of-ottawa-and-the-crtc.html
Article is subscription only, you can read it here.
One would think that the current Liberal CRTC would be better at maintaining competition than the previous Conservative CRTC, and yet here we are. start.ca is now telus, and teksavvy is soon to be… Rogers? Bell? Viacom?
Fuck it, bring on Starlink!
It’s sad when I could likely get faster and more reliable internet connected to a satellite than over cables hooked directly to my house. You’d think living in a more major city in a sprawling suburban residential area would get you reasonably reliable internet, but not even that is the case. Is it too much to ask CRTC to allow some competition?!?!
Now, would I rather give money to Bell/Rogers/Telus or to Elon Musk? Damn, that’s not an easy choice.
To bypass the paywall and read the article: https://archive.ph/qfn4r
Well… Damn it
To read the article without the paywall: https://web.archive.org/web/20230622225518/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-teksavvy-for-sale-internet-provider/
That sucks. Long time Teksaavy customer.
I was with TekSavvy for a long time but they were getting worse. I Switched to Oxio https://oxio.ca which is cheaper and faster than TS was. It’s a brand for Cogeco.
ah yeh Cogeco gobbling smaller ones. Didn’t ShawGers want to buy them at one point?
I also have oxio and its been great so far
Oxio is owned by Cogeco now.