# Cheapest internet access in Toronto without existing cable or telephone?



## krs

I'm moving to a new apartment and I need internet access for a Mac.

For phone service I use a cell phone and I have really no use for cable TV, so

What are my choices to get reasonable speed internet access.

Seems the assumption is that one has either cable or land line telephone service already and you just piggy-back internet on either one of those.

Dry DSL is an option, but it really bumps up the price.

I came across this service provider, CIA, 
https://www.cia.com/index.do

but none of the service reps and technicians I spoke to really knew what the options were if I have no cable or telephone service to start with.
There is nothing on their web site indicating that there would be an additional charge to what they advertise, one rep suggested there may be an additional charge of $4.95 for dry DSL but he wasn't sure.
They also don't support the mac which doesn't help.

Any suggestions how to approach this?


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## 8127972

Check out Teksavvy:
TekSavvy Solutions Inc.

5 Mbps/ 800 kbps service is $29.95 a month. Plus they get excellent reviews:
Detail : TekSavvy Solutions Inc. - dslreports.com


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## fyrefly

Does TekSavvy work as DryDSL??

If you're downtown (like in the square bordered by front/spadina/bloor/jarvis) then there's also the Toronto Hydro "One Zone" wireless network to think about. I had them for a month, and it was pretty good. $31 or so taxes in for a month -- no contract.

Toronto Hydro Telecom - One Zone High Speed Internet


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## Paradime

krs said:


> I came across this service provider, CIA,
> https://www.cia.com/index.do


All I have to say about CIA, alias 3Web, alias Cybersurf, is do your research before signing up with them. Yes, they're cheap. Yes, you can get great speeds...especially with their cable Internet (when they're not down) but there seems to be a lot of people (and I mean alot) complaining about them for one reason or another. Take a look:

Canadian Broadband forum - dslreports.com largest broadband community


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## 8127972

fyrefly said:


> Does TekSavvy work as DryDSL??


Yes. There's a guy in my workplace who has Dry DSL from Teksavvy.


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## wtl

I somehow don't think Toronto Hydro's wireless offerings will make it to Belleville.

I'd suggest having a look at this site :Canadian ISP - Select a city and service requirements for your ISP search

Hideous, yes, but it does work.

[edit]
Oops. My bad. I didn't notice the Toronto in the subject header. The link will still work for Toronto.


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## krs

Thanks for the suggestions.

The location is just north of Dundas and just west of the Don Valley.

I looked at Toronto Hydro, maybe worthwhile to check it again. When the ISPs quote rates, I assume they assume you already have a working telephone line and the fee for dry DSL is extra.

Cable in the building is provided by Rogers. Wonder if they have an internet option without having to sign up for cable TV.


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## HowEver

You can also do some research at DSL · Cable · VOIP · Security · Satellite · Fiber · News · Tips · Reviews · Community · Tools - dslreports.com which, before it rationalizes the URL, is simply www broadbandreports com .


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## krs

8127972 said:


> Check out Teksavvy:
> TekSavvy Solutions Inc.
> 
> 5 Mbps/ 800 kbps service is $29.95 a month. Plus they get excellent reviews:
> Detail : TekSavvy Solutions Inc. - dslreports.com


I had already looked at Teksavvy.

It's actually $29.95 plus $7 or $9 (band rate) plus $10 (modem rental) per month for the first six month, so a total over $50.00 with tax.


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## krs

fyrefly said:


> Does TekSavvy work as DryDSL??
> 
> If you're downtown (like in the square bordered by front/spadina/bloor/jarvis) then there's also the Toronto Hydro "One Zone" wireless network to think about. I had them for a month, and it was pretty good. $31 or so taxes in for a month -- no contract.
> 
> Toronto Hydro Telecom - One Zone High Speed Internet


Hydro One at $30.- would have been ideal but I'm outside the coverage map.


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## Mississauga

First thing to do, and probably most importantly, is to ask immediate neighbours regarding their experiences with local ISP services. Choose the method most highly praised. DSL or cable will ultimately be the answer. Stick with a locally reputable provider.


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## 8127972

krs said:


> I had already looked at Teksavvy.
> 
> It's actually $29.95 plus $7 or $9 (band rate) plus $10 (modem rental) per month for the first six month, so a total over $50.00 with tax.



Teksavvy lets you use any modem with their service. So you can grab one off of Craigslist cheap (that's what I did). Not to mention that they don't rent modems IIRC. You should get a quote on the band rate as that rate is highly variable.


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## krs

wtl said:


> I somehow don't think Toronto Hydro's wireless offerings will make it to Belleville.
> 
> I'd suggest having a look at this site :Canadian ISP - Select a city and service requirements for your ISP search
> 
> Hideous, yes, but it does work.


Thanks, I have used this web site before but couldn't remember the URL.


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## krs

8127972 said:


> Teksavvy lets you use any modem with their service. So you can grab one off of Craigslist cheap (that's what I did). Not to mention that they don't rent modems IIRC. You should get a quote on the band rate as that rate is highly variable.


I was looking at this page from Teksavvy. Is that the wrong page? It said modem rent-to-buy right at the bottom at $10 per month for six month.
If I buy one, does it matter which one? I have a Speedtouch 510 now in a different location and it locks up every once in a while where I have to reset it.

As to band rate, are you saying that's negotiable? I now know the building is in Band A. CIA already quoted me 4.95 for the dry loop but the guy wasn't too sure. Everyone else seems to have the same price of $7.25 listed for Band A.

I'm going to do a price comparison, but it looks as if all the DSL pricing is pretty much the same.


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## krs

Mississauga said:


> First thing to do, and probably most importantly, is to ask immediate neighbours regarding their experiences with local ISP services. Choose the method most highly praised.


Yes, definitely. But I'm not there yet and want to do a bit of homework ahead of time since everyone says it takes 7-10 business days to get hooked up.


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## wtl

krs said:


> As to band rate, are you saying that's negotiable? I now know the building is in Band A. CIA already quoted me 4.95 for the dry loop but the guy wasn't too sure. Everyone else seems to have the same price of $7.25 listed for Band A.


What the heck is a band rate?


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## krs

wtl said:


> What the heck is a band rate?


I assume it's the cost of the dry DSL loop. 
Cheaper in large centres, ie band A, and more expensive in smaller locations.


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## anexactfit

TEKSAVVY are assholes, just like all the rest. They are the moderators of the the Canadian Broadband site, and bury any negative reviews they receive. In my experience with them, I attempted to sign up, was told no dry loop would be necessary, then days later, told a dry loop WOULD be necesary, and I needed to be home between 8am and 5pm for a technician... I immediately cancelled the order, and was charged anyway. Incidentally with the dry loop you are likely to end up paying extra whenever bell has to do work on the lines, as they own the lines. 
I ended up being charged for two months of internet service, AND for the dry loop installation which never occurred. That's $150, stolen out of my pocket, with no service ever recieved by them.


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## Sho

Did you sign for any form of contract? Or agreed that you would pay even if they do the install? If not take the assholes to the BBB


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## broad

3 web is the WORST. they have one person answering phones there..you call and it just rings and rings and rings and eventually you get a message saying "call back later" and you are hung up on. i cancelled my service with them 2 days after initiating it (before they had even turned me on) once i saw what dealing with them was like..they then sent a tech anyway to install it, and charged me even though i had no work done. i simply didnt have the time or the patience to fight them on it, so they "won"...i wonder how many others have been in my service.

they are a bunch of jagoffs, even moreso than the jagoffs whose service they are re-selling

i would rather use public internet at dundas square than give them another dime of my money


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## Sho

Go with someone like rogers even if it costs you more with out cable tv. You'll get decent service and won't have to deal with 3rd rate providers.


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## John Clay

anexactfit said:


> TEKSAVVY are assholes, just like all the rest. They are the moderators of the the Canadian Broadband site, and bury any negative reviews they receive. In my experience with them, I attempted to sign up, was told no dry loop would be necessary, then days later, told a dry loop WOULD be necesary, and I needed to be home between 8am and 5pm for a technician... I immediately cancelled the order, and was charged anyway. Incidentally with the dry loop you are likely to end up paying extra whenever bell has to do work on the lines, as they own the lines.
> I ended up being charged for two months of internet service, AND for the dry loop installation which never occurred. That's $150, stolen out of my pocket, with no service ever recieved by them.


To clear up a few things, TekSavvy does NOT moderate, or in any way influence the moderators, of the Canadian Broadband forum and they do NOT bury negative reviews. If you haven't made any attempt to contact them other than the Broadband forum, you should call them to sort this out.


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## mpuk

I have had Teksavvy for going on 3 years, and have absolutely no complaints about anything. As far as the service goes, I run torrents more or less all day long and never get charged anything extra, phone is on VOIP, have no contract and have had little if no service interruption, and when there is maintenance on the network, they notify you by email, as its usually late at night. When I have called for anything, customer service was quick and painless. 

Regardless of the bad experience one person is writing about, I would still recommend them any day over Rogers or Bell!!!


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## IllusionX

i have teksavvy for 3+ years also.

John Clayy. voip.ms looks like good stuff. I've been looking for something like that for a while.. I'm gonna register for it once i move in my new house.


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## John Clay

IllusionX said:


> i have teksavvy for 3+ years also.
> 
> John Clayy. voip.ms looks like good stuff. I've been looking for something like that for a while.. I'm gonna register for it once i move in my new house.


With Voip.ms, the service is pretty good (and very cheap). But they do tend to nickel and dime you (charging for CID lookups, E911, etc). I use both Unlimitel and Voip.ms, because Unlimitel uses Bell for termination, and Voip.ms uses Allstream. That way, if either one is having issues I don't lose the ability to make outgoing calls. All incoming calls are through Unlimitel, as I like having a 416 number.

I also run my own PBX, which gives me a load of features (like call forwarding, callback and sending calls over the cheaper provider, depending on destination).


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## Giri

*Rogers*

Get iphone with data plan and you can tether it to your imac. You can have internet anywhere. 3GB download limit per month for $40/mth. :love2:





krs said:


> I'm moving to a new apartment and I need internet access for a Mac.
> 
> For phone service I use a cell phone and I have really no use for cable TV, so
> 
> What are my choices to get reasonable speed internet access.
> 
> Seems the assumption is that one has either cable or land line telephone service already and you just piggy-back internet on either one of those.
> 
> Dry DSL is an option, but it really bumps up the price.
> 
> I came across this service provider, CIA,
> https://www.cia.com/index.do
> 
> but none of the service reps and technicians I spoke to really knew what the options were if I have no cable or telephone service to start with.
> There is nothing on their web site indicating that there would be an additional charge to what they advertise, one rep suggested there may be an additional charge of $4.95 for dry DSL but he wasn't sure.
> They also don't support the mac which doesn't help.
> 
> Any suggestions how to approach this?


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## HAL 9000

You're definitely going to need a phone line, how else are you going to let the pizza man in. I'm using Primus for a number of years, not bad.


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## MacGenius24

Giri said:


> Get iphone with data plan and you can tether it to your imac. You can have internet anywhere. 3GB download limit per month for $40/mth. :love2:


Tethering is good to just check internet on the go. If your a serious web user, the speed would probably be slow and you would use up your bandwidth within hours. I think I use 5 GBs a day


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## yeeeha

krs said:


> Cable in the building is provided by Rogers. Wonder if they have an internet option without having to sign up for cable TV.


My friend has Internet access through Rogers without cable TV.  Don't know how much he pays.

I have TekSavvy for a few years. Mostly happy with its service. There is a 200GB per month download cap with my package. I never come close to the limit.


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## makuribu

HAL 9000 said:


> You're definitely going to need a phone line, how else are you going to let the pizza man in. I'm using Primus for a number of years, not bad.


I like Primus, too. They will sell you a DSL modem for decent price, rather than forcing you to rent.

They use Bell's lines and resell for a price that Bell still refuses to match.

If your apartment is already wired for phone, even if you never use it, they should be able to connect you.


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## DS

I've had IGS/3web/Distributel for 10 years or more now. Started off with IGS, who was then bought by 3web, and as I understand the 3web brand has now been picked up by Distributel.

I've never had any issues the entire time, even through the transitions. It's cheap and reliable, can't complain.


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## vacuvox

I ditched Sympatico at least 3 years ago and have been with Teksavvy ever since. With Symp we got between 1 and 2 on their "5MB" service. With Teksavy we get the full 5MB all the time. Teksavvy actually answers the phone - and your questions (if you don't automatically treat the service people like lesser humans). You can use your own modem and skip the rental fee. If you don't like the service or don't need it anymore, just call and cancel it - there is no contract and no penalty. I can't believe Sympatico is still in business! It can only be attributed to mass ignorance. There were 2 problems we experienced in 3 years: Bell decided to disconnect us at some point (yes, they still own and service the line) - and about 2 years ago our IP address got mistakenly blacklisted by barracuda - but in each case, a quick call to Teksavvy and we were back in action.


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