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.
Not any big ones. Maybe locally to you.
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've been with Lightspeed for years. They're based in Burnaby though, so I don't know if they are available Canada wide.
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.
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. According to BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Casey, BCE Inc. paid roughly $139-million for Ebox, an internet, telephone and television service provider based in Longueuil, Que., and approximately $335-million for Ottawa-based Distributel last year.
Telus, meanwhile, acquired Altima Telecom and Start.ca for undisclosed amounts, while Quebecor Inc. snapped up VMedia, an independent internet and television provider serving customers primarily in Toronto, in July of 2022. The price of the VMedia acquisition was also not disclosed.
Montreal-based Cogeco Inc., meanwhile, paid $100-million for Oxio, a Montreal-based provider with 48,000 internet subscribers, Mr. Casey wrote in a research note..
🤦🤦♀️🤦🏼♂️
Sent an email to my MP. This is a competition issue similar to the Shaw sale to Rogers and the feds should get involved. You should do the same.
It's astonishing how few independent telecom providers there are now
Now we know how these competitors were able to offer cheaper deals than TekSavvy for the last couple of years. They were all acquired and their costs are now dramatically lower as a result of not having to pay wholesale costs.
The CRTC has been doing a fine job of driving small ISPs out of business and keeping the market closed to all but the biggest established players.
After lowering rates in 2019, which immediately sparked lower internet prices across the country, the CRTC then astonishingly reversed its own decision and raised them back up again in 2021. And 8 years after saying they’d grant wholesale access to state-of-the-art fibre technology, it’s still not available to independent providers. Which means smaller ISPs simply can’t compete against those faster connections of the incumbents.
Ian Scott was a Telus exec after all.
Minister Champagne always talks about how he wants ample competition, but we've yet to see any actual effective effort.
Because none are independent. Reselling someone else's network isn't really a great position to be in.
Ugh, this is so discouraging. I'm a big fan of Internet Lightspeed as an independent ISP (Vancouver area). I haven't seen news of a buy-out for them yet, and I hope I never do.
Here's a non-paywall link: https://archive.is/qfn4r
We were Teksavvy subscribers for 10 years but switched to Bell Fibe last year...all Teksavvy had here was 6 Mbps DSL with a lousy 720 Kbps upload speed. Felt bad because I liked them but needed better internet for today's demands. CRTC screwed them.
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.
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.
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.
This is awful. TekSavvy was a strong advocate for positive change in a terrible, entrenched market, and the entire landscape is going to be worse without them. I guess at this point I hope that we see more municipal broadband efforts like in Olds, Alberta, though I fear that I'm never going to see something like that in any major cities.
This is a very sad day.
Okay, who's in to form a co-op and buy them?
You have my sword. I don't have a lot more than that to offer though. And the sword is just a metaphor.
Canada needs co-ops and Canada needs public access to communication networks. Is there a lawyer in the thread?
Even if we did that, it will still die without a drastic change in costs from the CRTC.
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.
Not going to be long until we see the return of tiny data caps with more frequent price increases.
I've really enjoyed my time with TekSavvy. My wife - then fiance - told me about them when I moved into our new place before her when I was comparing internet prices from the "Big 3". Their front facing disdain for the monopolization and lobbying of telecom in Canada was fascinating to see and made me a big fan, alongside their competitive pricing and good service as well. Although it's only been just over a year I'm really going to miss them if they change everything/are bought out. Hoping for the best here but it is looking grim.
What industry turmoil?
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
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.
That sucks. Long time Teksaavy customer.
Ah yeah that really suck.
Municipal network? Look at Toronto. CIty council wanted to create a network to service area where the cartel wouldn't service. The whole thing was vetoed by Rogers Director (member of the board) Mayor John Tory.
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.
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?!?!
Well.... Damn it
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.
Oxio is owned by Cogeco now.
What?? This country is so useless. I've stuck with Teksavvy since I got my first internet account back in 2009. I think I was getting 5/1 over DSL shared in a house of 3. I stuck through all the data usage crap they had to fight against, through the years of deep packet inspection, through the price increases in recent years, and even with knowing that the Liberals and the crtc are both seemingly in favour of never allowing them access to the fiber network.
Wind/Freedom mobile is getting sold yet again, I just experienced cable-cable being sold to Rogers, and now Teksavvy might next. And for what; its not like they're bringing their fancy fiber to my house any time soon. They came by in 2019 letting me know they're making the plans to roll it out on my street. It never happened. All while I get to watch them install fiber in the suburbs.
Aw darn it. I was just about to switch to them too... Unless they get bought by an idealist buyer, they are just gonna get gobbled up by the big 3...
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