High Speed Access in Canada, or, a good reason to move to Vancouver

06/05/2004: What is happening lately in the Cable v DSL war.
06/05/2004: Watching Shrek, gambling, too
05/01/2002: I know, the set of tables below this line is a historical comparison.
A few comparisons of high speed Internet access in Canada: xDSL, Cable and digital Wireless.
Note that general system requirements are Pentium 166 minimum: PowerPC through G3 for Mac: min 32MB RAM, usually 75MB HD free space, NIC (10Mbps Ethernet). All costs in C$.
xDSL: Telus in BC, the others in Ontario, viz., Ottawa

Cable: contention based; bandwidth experiences of users becoming better as competition from xDSL grows. And, below that, is digital wireless access from LookTvi

Old Stuff, this, but interesting in itself to show what was going on early in the 21st Century:
Telus: BC and Alberta, coming to the East (currently business only).
Bell HSE: Ontario: promulgates PPPoE, which is a technical nightmare, implemented to allow lease of lines to companies like Magma. Nothing to do with technical excellence, although nominally introduced to allow DUN-like authentication, and reduces bandwidth by ca 10%. They are to upgrade the SMS system or change to Nortel or Cisco or similar hardware in the next few months. Business access, has PPPoE and ADSL versions, includes Digital Access Services. The ADSL service is to be upgraded, probably June 2001, to 2.5Mbps; the PPPoE home service to 1.5Mbps sometime soon 
Magma: Ottawa, also offer business rates for xDSL, ISDN and T1 but does not give prices over the Internet. Why not?
Trytel: Ottawa: Home and Work offers (1.1 and 2.2Mbps). Not PPPoE and bandwidth superior. Pricing is not and one has to purchase a router (modem) which is useless for other contracts. New to Ottawa's echelon is ADSL, at an extortionate cost although they state it is much cheaper than T1 or ISDN services. No matter, why can Telus offer its excellent service at such prices cf. Ontario.
UUNET offers 2.2Mbps ADSL, costing complicated, needs local ISP provider. National coverage, if spotty.
Shaw@Home: available from BC to Ontario. Rogers@Home is in Ontario, Vidéotron is in Québec. Cable rates claim up to 3Mbps, rarely achieved.

Another option is LookTVi, digital wireless. One or two way service is advertised. Residential service not offered due to overwhelming demand! Business service is one way and needs local radio direct sight tower for download, PSTN for upload. The company also offers SOHO, small business, etc., xDSL, SDSL, RADSL with minimum prices of $139, $199 and $309 per month.