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Telus TV - Is it worth making the switch?

My Happy Fat Wallet:

The next day I make the dreaded call into Telus to find out what my options are. There is no way I'm going to accept a Telus internet slowdown when I have both my televisions on.

First good news? The Telus service man showed up the next day to fix the phone. Yes it was working before Telus TV was installed, but returing the next day to fix it was dandy. I had a chance to speak with him from my place of work while he was at my apartment. I had a lot of technical questions about my short experience with Telus TV and he was very informative. I should say now, that in all the times I called into Telus, the reps are friendly, helpful and most importantly to me, they really wanted me as a customer. I mean seriously wanted to keep me as a customer! Let me explain further.

When I called the next day, I was ready to ditch Telus TV, Telus internet and Telus phone services. I had signed up to a 3 year deal, but I was willing to eat some money over this internet speed issue. So, after calling in, venting, and then listening to the Telus rep, they wanted to find a solution. I told them point blank, that I wanted the 15 MB profile. They replied with the strict line that they don't allow people to get the 15 MB profile unless they are getting HD channels. Guess what I have to ask then, as painful as it is? How much for an HD channel pack? $5 they told me. Of course they had to find out first, if the HD channels were available where I lived. Thankfully my area and building were are suitable for the 15 MB profile. You may be lucky, you may not be lucky in getting the 15 MB profile. You do need to verify that you can get a 15 MB first. Do it before committing long term to Telus in my opinion. Perhaps you will only ever have 1 TV in your home or apartment in which case the standard 7 MB profile will be sufficient.

So, after about what seemed like an hour converstation on the phone with Telus, I was pretty darn happy. Yes, I was staying with Telus TV and their bundle! I was angry at having to pay another $5 per month for an HD channel pack when I didn't even have an HD TV in my house. I stood my ground with the Telus rep, repeating my anger about not knowing about the internet slowdown, and that I was willing to cancel my services. The end result was that Telus fudged my bundle so that the $5 was reduced from my internet charges. Therefore, I wasn't having to pay that extra $5. I hope nobody gets in trouble if a Telus boss reads that. The fact is, the Telus TV rep was very sincere about wanting to keep me as a customer.

So, getting a $5 HD channel pack for Telus TV means that you move from a 7 MB profile to a 15 MB profie. Remember, Telus TV can only power 1 HD TV per household. So breaking it down technically, my 2 TV and internet will use this amount of bandwidth: 3 MB + 3 MB + 3 MB = 9 MB and I have the 15.0 MB bandwidth available. My Telus internet speed is now completely independant of my to televisions. This is exactly what the doctor ordered!

Now, here is another scenario if you have an HDTV. An Telus TV running HD uses 9.0 MB of bandwidth. So if you have 1 HDTV, 1 SD TV and internet running at the same time, this is your bandwidth usage: 9 MB + 3 MB + 3 MB = 15 MB usage. You can see, that under this situation, that you max out your bandwidth. But still, your internet will be at 3.0 MB regardless of what your televsions are doing.

So now everything is perfect right? Well no, it's actually not perfect yet. My Telus TV story isn't done yet. I still have more phone calls to make to Telus TV!

Continue Reading My Telus TV Review - Page 7 - Telus TV Aftermath