"Citywest is a small, local cable Internet and TV provider in northern
British Columbia, servicing Kitimat, Terrace, and Prince Rupert among other
small cities and areas. Unfortunately, line quality tests reveal that
Citywest is, possibly, one of the poorest choices for Internet with up to
15% lost packets at their gateway during prime time hours. This makes
streaming video during prime time, for example, virtually impossible. Coincidentally, they sell cable TV.
Due to a conflict between Citywest and Telus, where it is rumoured that
Citywest did not wish to pay for additional fibre from Telus at certain
rates Citywest (or that Telus refused them) Citywest has been losing
anywhere between 5-7% and 15% of its packets at its Gateway (Navigata).
However, despite not having enough backbone to service its existing
customers, Citywest has continued to troll for new customers, loading its
pipe down even further. In any other business, shortchanging a customer
15% on every transaction would constitute fraud, but in Canada with respect
to Internet, it’s just an “oh well” situation rather than the board of
directors being charged and jailed.
Speed tests run on Citywest show 5Mbps download speed, which are extremely
misleading. In reality, that speed test is redirected to local, or
internal Citywest servers. Once you cross the Citywest gateway, service is
horrendous during prime time hours. Citywest has managed to paper over
this by prioritizing VOIP packets and losing lower priority packets, so
they don’t get VOIP throttling complaints from their users. Even Telus’
1.5Mbps outperforms Citywest’s 5Mbps in any real world transmission. Oh, and they throttle bittorrent traffic. Some might consider their selling of cable TV and coincidental breaking of prime time video streaming to be in violation of CRTC rules, but Citywest’s new president is, rumour has it, a former employee of the CRTC.
Genuinely one of the worst Internet providers there is, verging on criminal. "
I’d believe all of that given the service I’ve been getting lately. About a month and a half ago my already shitty internet connection speeds suddenly seemed cut in half. Downloads at half the usual speed and streaming video on the lowest settings stutter and are generally unwatchable, when I used to be able to watch them on the HD settings.
All I’ve gotten from Citywest is “We’ll look into it”. Two weeks later no change and no update. When I ask for an update I get ignored.
I would switch providers in an instant if there was an option.
I have both Citywest 5meg Cable and Telus 1.5meg ADSL in Terrace. There’s no comparison. Citywest is faster, at any time of the day. Telus has rolled out 15 meg in Terrace, though, and that service will surely be faster than Citywest’s.
Try running Speedtest using lower mainland servers for a fair comparison. You don’t need to use Citywest’s server.
I’m one of Citywest’s biggest critics, I’m sure. But no need to make stuff up to criticize them. The truth is harsh enough.
For example, how about 3 or 4 days to try and get someone on the phone? Or being told that there are no cellphones available, period?
Citywest tends to have great customer service, once you get someone on the phone (or by e-mail). But the delay in getting a hold of someone has gotten longer and longer. I see they’re no longer advertising 24/7 service either.
Meanwhile Telus is more than a year into their quest to become the highest rated customer service in Canada. I think they’re doing great. Has anybody called them recently? You get a human on the phone right away, and that person is empowered to do what it takes to solve your problem, right there and then. I called customer service at 1am in Vancouver, and had a knowledgeable person on the phone solve my problem almost instantly.
Sadly, I think the City should have sold Citywest a long time ago. I’m sure they’ll be approaching taxpayers any day now to ask permission to raise taxes, while risking such a large investment in a market they don’t seem to understand.
I had no idea if that website was posting fact or fiction. I just thought i would share.
Most of my dealings with Citywest have been positive ones, other than our internet speed slowing down. I do believe that more bandwidth is on the near horizon. I just recently changed my encryption setting with Vuze, regarding bit torrents, and it has made a bit of a difference with download speeds.
And Mig it dose mention the CRTC
"He was also a policy analyst for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission" from the Wiki link u posted.
[quote=“MadMax”]And Mig it dose mention the CRTC
"He was also a policy analyst for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission" from the Wiki link u posted.[/quote]
From an important corporate internet user, Citywest needs to improve its service in its peak hours. We run 24/7 and require our VPN to headquarters to be running efficiently. An example of there down fall can be represented by the following:
Conclusion: Telus 1.5meg still slower than Citywest 5meg cable, but just barely. Really, Citywest should be more than 3 times faster, but it’s basically the same speed as the crappy Telus connection. At least the Telus DSL connection hasn’t changed in quality, despite the prime time rush. Unlike the Telus 3G.
Rogers 3G is much faster right now, but not a fair comparison, because I didn’t measure it this afternoon.
Surprisingly not surprised. I’ve always maintained almost to a letter exactly what the article read and one other thing: the SpeedTest reports are throttled to make your think you get what you pay for. It’s been 4-5 years since this information came to light - I am sure the remainder of my comment will also be exposed in the future as well.
I don’t WANT to not like CityWest. I just feel for the level of service and condescension many Rupertites get from their Custom Disservice, it justifies the position I take. I don’t expect 10Mbit connections that download 1080P as fast as sitting on a fibre backbone in urban Vancouver, but our “real world scenario” bandwidth is BS.
[quote=“MeepMeepZoom”]Surprisingly not surprised. I’ve always maintained almost to a letter exactly what the article read and one other thing: the SpeedTest reports are throttled to make your think you get what you pay for. It’s been 4-5 years since this information came to light - I am sure the remainder of my comment will also be exposed in the future as well.
I don’t WANT to not like CityWest. I just feel for the level of service and condescension many Rupertites get from their Custom Disservice, it justifies the position I take. I don’t expect 10Mbit connections that download 1080P as fast as sitting on a fibre backbone in urban Vancouver, but our “real world scenario” bandwidth is BS.[/quote]
Bordering on fraud… 1.4mbit is not 5mbit nor is it a reasonable ‘real world expectation’. I could understand 2/3 of your allocated bandwidth when under really high load but 1.4mbit… wow. Even 1.9mbit is pretty bloody bad.
I pay for 6mbit from telus and get about 4mbit.
“Real World” bandwidth use, I have no problem getting to 5meg this afternoon. This is downloading Final Cut Pro X “extras” as well as a game from Steam and some YouTube going on somewhere in the house
In completely unrelated news, citywest management realizes customers are on to their scam and have now tuned results for the vancouver speedtest server
Actually I dont think citywest in spite of their flaws (and there are many) are completely incompetent. Some very intelligent people work there… unfortunately it appears some very shady people work there too.
[quote=“jesus”]
Actually I dont think citywest in spite of their flaws (and there are many) are completely incompetent. Some very intelligent people work there… unfortunately it appears some very shady people work there too.[/quote]
[quote=“katray”]From an important corporate internet user, Citywest needs to improve its service in its peak hours. We run 24/7 and require our VPN to headquarters to be running efficiently. An example of there down fall can be represented by the following:
