I've had them both at various times, and I've had very good experiences with both. Shaw has slightly better "official" prices, but MTS offered a really good deal not long after I bundled all my services with Shaw - so of course I went back to MTS.
Jimmy, I think you illustrate a good point I should have brought up.
WInnipegman, it's important to realize that if all you're going to do is surf the web, the connection MTS provides will likely seem no different to you and the comparison will be pointless.
When I talk about latency, bandwidth, throughput etc.. I'm talking about some important aspects of quality that get overlooked nowadays. I was staying at some hotels this week and they offered "in suite internet" which is pretty kickass if you take it at face value. What they didn't mention is that they have some sort of system in place that breaks the connection intermittently for a few seconds at a time. This prevents you from doing anything more than browsing the web where the average exchange of information seldom lasts longer than a few seconds and is a little more fault tolerant than say, streaming music. Or even downloading a file.
The point I'm making is that while MTS connections aren't so bad, if you are a fan of doing multiple things at once, the MTS connection will see it's limits a lot sooner than the Shaw one. While they advertise an internet connection, it's not the greatest and they WON'T TELL YOU THAT. If you put their advertising techniques through the smell test, you'll find that they rely a lot on you not having all the facts where Shaw just says "yeah, we're fast". MTS and DSL fans always like to slam cable for having saturation issues and I'll tell you right now - that is a pile of conjured theoretical advertising crap.
If you do lots of stuff, go Shaw. The difference is noticeable. DSL connections are about as crappy for data as cell phones are for voice nowadays and it's no coincidence that MTS backs both at that point. Why have a product that actually does what it's supposed to do well when you can just cut corners, right?
I've had both MTS and Shaw, I prefer Shaw due to better service when things go wrong,almost always same day service whereas with MTS it was sometimes a 2 day wait. It also really bothered me when shaw phone service started up and offered unlimited long distance for a set monthly fee how fast MTS tried to match that. It shows you how they were overcharging us all those years when they had the corner on the market........shame on MTS.
With phone service I prefer MTS given that you know it'll work even if there's a power outage, although Shaw supplies backup batteries that should keep you going for at least a while in case of blackout (though I don't know how long). Never had any problems with either phone service, though.
For TV I used to have Shaw basic cable because it was rather simple to use. I have MTS TV and while I like the channel offerings, I find their boxes to be a bit annoying. Channel surfing (essential for guys) is impaired somewhat because it takes a couple of seconds for the picture to appear after you switch stations. Also, I find the remote control to be of dubious quality. I don't know how Shaw digital boxes behave in case that's the route you were thinking of going.
These are pretty nitpicky, though...on the whole I think they're both pretty good.
Shaw reception was flakey in both of the last two places I've lived. I think they need to replace much of their cable. Had a lot of noise in the lower TV channels and internet was crapping out when it was cold outside. Their service may be better, but the quality of the product was not as good in my experience. Although.. MTS gave me a crappy box when I switched to MTS TV. It lasted less than a month.
[quote][cite] DeanK:[/cite]I personally prefer to have them broken apart. If your cable goes out...how the frick you going to call them to tell them there is a problem?[/quote]
shaw offers more high definition channels,and pvr ,only satellite matches shaw on these areas(satellite has more hd than cable). mts tv vs. shaw tv ,is like buying from the same barrel ,just each provider sells different size portions ,and its tricky. both have a minimum basic requirement. shaw has analog and digital,mts all digital, mts offers theme groups normally 4 channels per group,shaws grouping has large analog groups(tier 123),and digital groups that you can build from 2-15 channels.exceptions include movie central ,ethnic and smut,and, ppv, vod other premium sports programming.
phone is almost the same story,both offer low and high service packages,with long distance included or pay as you use.same with calling features.
mts lets you add on features one by one,shaw charges a set fee and includes service features depending on which package you choose.
Has anyone cancelled MTS DSL lately? We did... and MTS charged us an extra month because "we didn't give them 30 days written notice". Load of crap. Who does this other than MTS?!
IMO, they know they can't compete so they bill for service they don't provide. Since then we've disconnected phone service and cancelled our MTS Wireless (they're trying to collect a $60 "disconnect fee here too"). Good riddence.
That's wild. What are they going to do if you don't pay the disconnection fee? Disconnect you for non-payment of the disconnection fee, or dis-disconnect you and give you the service for free?
I believe the disconnect fee is if you dont return the rental equipment to them. At least thats what it was several years ago...ie bring us our modem back.. or we will charge you for sending a guy out to get it.
I'm still with Shaw for all my home communications needs. Though I will be downgrading my phone service as I don't need unlimited long distance as I don't make that many long distance phone calls. In fact I had MTS call me a few days ago begging me to come back to them as a customer and I flat out right told them no. I dislike DSL for it's lack of speed and poor latency, and their TV service is garbage. So what I can pick channel packages. My primary usage for cable in my household is for internet and light tv watching and phone usage.
There is no technical nor financial reason to switch back.
Yeah, it wasn't explained to us as a disconnect fee, but rather since we didn't give them 30 days notice of our disconnection. Sort of a "you should have told us fee". We had given the DSL modem back to them at the MTS store in Polo Park.
J2F, I don't know how MTS intended to collect...I assume they would have just charged my credit card since we were on preauth credit card pmts. We ended up just paying it and left with a very bad taste in our mouths for MTS. But since we've disconnected our mobile service with them last month, we've rec'd a "pay us $60 for not telling us" bill again...and we were no longer on a contract either!
I think MTS is still holding on to some "we've got the monopoly" ideals. They'd better wake up and smell the competition. If I were an investor, I would be very concerned that the company is so indifferent to the realities of the market.