I believe the NWTel organization (NorthWest Territories) gets to justify higher cost because of the higher expenses for establishing services that far north.
Aliant (NBTel, MTT, IslandTel and NewTel) on the east coast are fairly uniform in residential DSL offering - 3.2 Mbps down 1.1 Mbps up in NS for under $40. when bundled with local and long distance service. They (NB and NS) have or will have Digital television over DSL as well - 1MB for internet traffic and 3+ MB dedicated for the TV for less than $100 per month. Maybe even less than $80, I'm out of the loop living in the US now but market wise that is the route they are going.
Cable is fairly pervasive with a few different providers and having similarly competitive rates.
Concentric is there for an example of available independant competition - not sure if ATT and Sprint have launched their broadband competition in Eastern Canada yet.
Having worked in support in the DSL world I can relate to the frustration customers feel, particularly in Canada, because the price has made the customer base grow exponentially - 300 - 3000 in one year, almost 10,000 by the following in NS alone. The high rate of attrition, (more than 30%) turn over in those positions means that the majority of technicians are relatively new - so performance is approximately 35 to 50% less than that of a senior agent familiar with the issues.
Having worked in the environment I would say the majority of troubles in Canada are due to understaffing (numbers) and poor compensation which contributes to the high rate of attrition, which in turn cycles back to the lower level of experience which means the staff can never seem to get completely on top of the issues or call volume. If they ever get on top of the issues then the Telco perceives them as overstaffed. One begins to see a vicious cycle.
Until they learn in Canada that it is much cheaper and more productive to keep experienced agents happy, you'll continue to see this type of trouble.
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I believe the NWTel organization (NorthWest Territories) gets to justify higher cost because of the higher expenses for establishing services that far north. Aliant (NBTel, MTT, IslandTel and NewTel) on the east coast are fairly uniform in residential DSL offering - 3.2 Mbps down 1.1 Mbps up in NS for under $40. when bundled with local and long distance service. They (NB and NS) have or will have Digital television over DSL as well - 1MB for internet traffic and 3+ MB dedicated for the TV for less than $100 per month. Maybe even less than $80, I'm out of the loop living in the US now but market wise that is the route they are going. Cable is fairly pervasive with a few different providers and having similarly competitive rates. Concentric is there for an example of available independant competition - not sure if ATT and Sprint have launched their broadband competition in Eastern Canada yet. Having worked in support in the DSL world I can relate to the frustration customers feel, particularly in Canada, because the price has made the customer base grow exponentially - 300 - 3000 in one year, almost 10,000 by the following in NS alone. The high rate of attrition, (more than 30%) turn over in those positions means that the majority of technicians are relatively new - so performance is approximately 35 to 50% less than that of a senior agent familiar with the issues. Having worked in the environment I would say the majority of troubles in Canada are due to understaffing (numbers) and poor compensation which contributes to the high rate of attrition, which in turn cycles back to the lower level of experience which means the staff can never seem to get completely on top of the issues or call volume. If they ever get on top of the issues then the Telco perceives them as overstaffed. One begins to see a vicious cycle. Until they learn in Canada that it is much cheaper and more productive to keep experienced agents happy, you'll continue to see this type of trouble.