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Review by Tikker_LoS 
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 5.5 years, 1672 visits, last login: 2 days ago
 Regina,SK
 $45 per month
 about 5 days
 "Reliable, decent download speeds, good package of services"
 "Faster upload would be nice"
 "Good value for $$, less companies to deal with"
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DSL is 5000/640 profile. Get consistently good speeds for download, with very rare (unexpected) outages.
Install was very professional, and neat. The time from order to working installation was about a week or 10 days. Service worked the 1st time
The TV portion (MAX) is great. Basically get the same channels as Cable, but service is more like a Satellite (much better channel guide)
bundling the TV with the highspeed access was cheaper than the cable offering, or buying each seperately
Really satisfied to date, and just recently SaskTel has changed the DSL profile to 5000/640 (I'm getting it July 8/2004)
EDIT:
it's been a year since I upgraded to the 5000/640 profile
DSL hasn't been down once yet (that I've noticed anyways, and that's about all that counts)
the TV looks good, new features added all the time
EDIT: Mar 20/06
Received a flyer with the latest bill stating that HDTV, and up to 4 set top boxes, so really good news~
Still haven't had an internet outtage yet. TV has had some minor glitches, but nothing major to note.
EDIT: Sept20/06
New 2wire gateways are now being installed to replace the old generic westell modems. The first 1 I got was very flaky (the internal webpage kept dying, but it kept passing traffic, so mostly just inconvenient) but the 2nd seems fine. They have built in 4 port switch, and Wireless access point so kind of a nice option. Let me remove 1 switch, and 1 old router
EDIT: Mar16/07
The 2wires just suck, otherwise things are good. There's a known bug in the wireless chipset with these boxes which causes inconveniences, but no outages
I'm mostly satisfied with MAX, but I'd like to go to HD eventually. not quite enough HD channels out there to really warrant the change yet (and lack of a big screen HDTV  )
EDIT: Mar11/08
Newer firmware on the 2Wires has solved all complaints. No noticed outtages to date in the last year, and service just works.
Still contemplating HDTV
EDIT: Oct 16/08
Have finally made the move to HDTV. using the motorola vip1200 DTVR can watch 1 HD stream, and record another in the background (or record 2 at a time, and watch something previously recorded)
The PVR software itself isn't great, but is a work in progress, and improved from time to time. the HD picture itself looks great, and I'm very happy with it.
I got HD really specifically for Hockey season, and Football, and I'm very impressed with how much better these look
faster internet speeds are available (10/1) but I don't fill up my 5mb connection all that often, so don't see much point to upgrading (I'm actually considering dropping back to the 1.5 tier and saving 10 bucks)
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Review by boyio2006
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 3.6 years, 369 visits, last login: 17 days ago
Prince Albert,SK
$70 per month (23 month contract)
"Fast and bundled on one bill"
"no center ice"
"if u want to be billed on one bill, get the service"
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I have Sasktel for over a year and a half now and still no problem to report since I had from day one.
I get everything on one bill and get the equipment for free (equipment covers by one monthly fee) No need to purchase them.
If u want to be billed for everything, this is the service for everybody.
No PVR or High Def yet, they said they will be available this year. I want to try them out once they get them going.
The only thing i can say is there is no center ice yet. Also there is a big improvement on the service. We now have vdsl2 now so this means we can have two tuners instead of one.
no problems as of late which is always good.
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Review by the_dukester
Posted: 1.3 years ago
member for 7.8 years, 17 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Tisdale,SK
$59 per month (month by month)
about 3 days
 Primary Network
"Friendly local workers"
"erractic speeds, speed limits for small communities"
"not bad when it is all you have"
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none
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Review by SniperSlap
Posted: 2.8 years ago
member for 2.8 years, 4 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
Saskatoon,SK
Contract price not specified.
"Very nice employees for the most part."
"Recent 2Wire equipmet is too bloated"
"You may have to fight for quality, but it IS there."
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I signed up for SaskTel's MAX service. The television service is awesome (as an aside), easily beats Shaw's and is 50% of why I stuck on for so long.
The other half of the service which is Internet was a bit more complicated.
Scheduling the installation was no hassle and everyone was very friendly. I've had other interactions with SaskTel and they are a very friendly company with good response to important customer concerns.
For installation, I asked that I have the modem in a computer room (second bedroom), and the television and analog phone in the living room. This is so that I can have a computer room and a living room setup...Fairly obvious.
The installer went on to set it up so that my modem/gateway/whatever-beast would be beside my bed in my bedroom, with one CAT-5/RJ45 running to the computer room and another running to the television (max connects usig CAT-5/RJ-45).
He was a bit annoyed that I didn't want my 2Wire modem in my bedroom on the floor beside my bed and I told him to do the extra work because that was how I wanted it. It seemed stupid to just have a modem sitting in the middle of a room where it had nothing to do with what it accomplished.
I somewhat understood his confusion later on as I began to learn how useless and overbearing the 2Wire equipment is.
This was my first REAL problem. The 2Wire equipment....
This device tries to be everything to everyone. Both customer and support staff. But limits you by taking over your network and also offering faulty wireless (known issue).
You cannot disable the firewall. You cannot disable the DHCP server. The device has a strange way of representing connections and offers a confusing glut of options to configure devices that are or HAVE connected to your network. Again, anyone technical will realize that 2Wire has simply designed to the requirements on this one and has put little into assuring a job well done.
Another unmentioned quirk is that the 2Wire modem almost DEPENDS on it's internal DHCP server to give you addresses. It consumes one from SaskTel, but doesn't offer you any others you might have. So again, this 2Wire equipment is not your regular "modem" in the classic sense.
This perculiar architecting just goes along the lines of what I've already said. 2Wire and SaskTel are clearly trying to cooperate, it just isn't working out well for them.
Either way, it took me quite some while to figure out why everything was being so boned. I could not use my Linksys 802.11n router/AP with this monster.
Consequently, wireless access caused it to put sqwaking and chirping noises (as well as video corruption) on my television signal (known issue) - similar to when Bell ExpressVU cuts out during a storm.
All the support staff but one acted surprised by my troubles. This one individual finally made the suggestion of switching to a Westell modem. Which is what I have now.
Now that I have a Westell? My 802.11n serves up some awesome-fast internet to a huge area with a good signal. My television can run at the same time as games and other streaming media...Much better throughput and latency. I get all my IP addresses and I get to use my nice expensive toys the way I want. No more troubles and an internet connection I have control over!
So. SaskTel isn't bad, they are an overall nice company, their technical expertise is limited however. A summary of what to do if you're a new SaskTel customer:
o INSIST that they Swap 2Wire for Westell equipment. Bear in mind that you can only do this if you plan on having just ONE television box. If you want more, you might be able to convince them to just give you additional modems - but I'm not sure.
o Don't pay attention to their phone support staff, they're largely incompetant.
o Reccomend as a customer that SaskTel switch away from 2Wire hardware and seek out a vendor who can provide QUALITY firmware solutions to both the support staff and the customers they stick with this stuff. Overarchitecting the home network is a bloated and scary idea and I refuse to allow any service provider to give me anything more than IP addresses!
Followup comments:  wilburyan
join:2002-08-01
| crappy 2wire A problem I'v noticed with my 2wire...
When I am connected through wireless (set to WPA2-PSK... havn't tested with the other security options) I get an interesting problem when I use Check Point VPN to connect to work.
The modem completely power cycles and has to sync back up, tv and internet are down while that happens. If I try again... same thing. However, if I plug the laptop into the router directly... it connects fine. | |
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Review by boyio2006
Posted: 3.6 years ago
member for 3.6 years, 369 visits, last login: 17 days ago
Prince Albert,SK
$70 per month
"Fast and never need to buy equipment"
"no PVR and High Def Yet (offering this summer or fall)"
"if u want to be billed on one bill, get the service"
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I have Sasktel for over a year and a half now and still no problem to report since I had from day one.
I get everything on one bill and get the equipment for free (equipment covers by one monthly fee) No need to purchase them.
If u want to be billed for everything, this is the service for everybody.
No PVR or High Def yet, they said they will be available this year. I want to try them out once they get them going.
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 Review by DreamCarr
UPDATED: 5.4 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 4156 visits, last login: a few hours ago
6D 6F 6F 00
$39 per month
"recent upgrade to 5meg/640 for FREE"
"atm, not a whole lot.. miss my MAX tho"
"i'm happy!.. wooot!"
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I intitially signed up with sympatico DSL back in the winter 1999, shortly after it first came out in my city. i was impressed with the speed then, but I would loose connection at times. Then i had to cancel my subscription due to financial reasons. When i re-signed up, in august of 2k, it only took a week for the tech to be at my house to get the filter installed. the connection worked right away and reliably ever since. i havent had any disconnects or trouble with the email servers like some people have, and i get good speed (1359/110) at all hours of the day
*update*
switched to Shaw HS cable internet, it was ok for about a month or two, then the speeds got discustingly slow. so i switched back to DSL... low pings, (only 4 blocks from CO hehe) and speed...all the way!! 
*update*
moved to a new city, got the basic bundle again... has worked awsome since day of install... i'm going to be moving in with the g/f soon and will probably bump up my service to 2000/384.. so i'll post another update then
*update*
signed up for the MAX ulitmate bundle with my grilfriend ($119 for all the channels + movie central) and under the U of S student promo and the current promo, i'm going to be able to get ultimate max for $79.99 a month for the frist 6 months, with the frist month FREE and $10off/month for another 6 months (to one full year). this is an awsome price for apporx 100+channels (fully digital, not like shaws tier 3 analog, rest digital) and about 30+ digital music channels as well as basic high-speed service (1500/128) i have heard that with MAX your speed cap goes up, or is taken off (depending on installation) due to the MAX sharing the pipe with the dsl signal... if you turn off your set-top box it supposedly shunts the extra bandwidth to your PC.. i'll have to test that though
*update*
moving to a new city, and maintaning my HS Classic bundle, but loosing the max service, as its not offered here. also loosing my 384 upload, its back to 128 now. kinda annoyed, but hey.. i'm still getting good speed
*update*
at the new place, have heard rumors of the MAX service coming to the new town in 2005, so excited about that as the extreme and plus packages should come with it (5/7meg packages)
*update*
still no MAX service. gaming alot more and really missing the 384 upload. i'd also love more downstream, seeing's as everyone is starting to move to 3mb standard packages it seems.
*update*
sasktel recently rolled out 5/640 upgrades to anyone within 2.5km of the CO, in most of the major centers. I'm lovin it. Much awaited boost in speed, and so welcome lol.
*update*
still good solid service, no bittorrent throttling and decent PINGs to gaming services.
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Review by Sumache16
UPDATED: 6.4 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 46 visits, last login: 6.4 years ago
Canada
$75 per month
about 3 days
"Very fast; reliable; on 24/7; cheap channel packages."
"Tech support a bit slow; download is oddly slowed big time when you are uploading at speeds over 20KB/s."
"Excellent speed for a good price (Sasktel MAX included in package) and good selection of channels."
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Originally about 2 years ago I only had the normal high speed package. It was good with a ok price tag and speed. Now I stepped up the the Sasktel MAX package (high speed internet and internet(?) tv). My download speeds have nearly trippled after (going from average of about 180KB/s to 500KB/s!! =)) getting MAX. Upload on the other hand stayed the same but I found out I can upload to 3 people simultaneously at the same constant speed of 15KB/s compared to 1 person at that speed. I believe Sasktel MAX is a good value with only a $20 increase in price to your already existing line (they give you 20 more channels and a free switch and a new modem thats always on). If you want to add on packages it actually pretty darn cheap too. Only $5 per add on package and $20 for 5 packages (take that Shaw  )! The price also includes unlimited local calls too : ) They also got a new thing on now. Add another television to the Max program for only an extra 3 bucks a month. Pretty cheap!
Installation went very smoothly. He came and went and answered all question I had and taught how to use the darn remote and he even kept all the wires neat like I like them!
Tech support is slooooooow. Both times I had to phone in I had to wait at least 20 minutes before I could get help. They really oughta hire some new guys.
A odd thing I should point out is that when I play over Battle.net on a game called Starcraft:Brood War or Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is that people can rarely join my game. They usually get a message saying Latency too High but then again I play on the U.S. East Server for the sake of more people and games.
Otherwise...thats about it. Enjoy!
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 Review by Big Sis
Posted: 7 years ago
member for 7.4 years, 230 visits, last login: 3.3 years ago
Regina, SK
$45 per month
about 3 days
"Seem pretty reliable for overall service"
"Long waits on the phone for technical support"
"It's a good ISP for me... Of course, it's not for everyone"
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We got DSL service when it first came to Regina. I know it's been a few years already. They offered free installation and a couple of free months service to sign up. They were quick to coordinate and have someone come out to connect everything for me. I believe it was about 3 days a the most.
We did have some initial problems, but SaskTel was quick to come out (after hours) and found out it was a faulty dsl modem, which they replaced quickly.
Home equipment at the time was only a 486 pc... (how primitive), but still, it was much faster than dialup! That computer has since gone to the computer part store in the sky and has been replaced by a classic pentium 200mHz, with a mere 96 mb of ram and an 80gb hard drive.
I'm happy with SaskTel, as they also provide my regular phone service and cellular service. They have always been very good to us, so why would I switch??
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Review by bunnicula
Posted: 7 years ago
member for 7.1 years, 2 visits, last login: 7 years ago
Saskatoon,SK
$22 per month
about 4 days
"Reliable, inexpensive, fast enough for us, excellent Usenet services"
"Very little"
"It's everything we want and more than we need!"
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We started with SaskTel on 56k dial-up about 3 or four years ago. Because of Chrismas and summer specials we have NEVER had to pay for installation or equipment! Switched to high-speed about a year ago and then to high-speed light (limit of about 160k throughput) a few months later (no costs for either change) because the price was only Cn$5 more than what we would be paying for dial-up service. We have never had to wait for more than 8 calendar days for installation.
We have had very few problems with them. When a front-line tech support hasn't been able to assist (everything from slow connections to security problems) we have received support from someone higher up the tech hierarchy within two days. With the exception of the recent 3 day upgrade of all their news servers, we have lost parts of their service for a total of perhaps 12 hours over three years!
We and others seem to have consistent speed (except when their is A LOT of users online--first day of school holidays, etc.) and only slows marginally at the worst times. Usenet/Newsgroup and e-mail access with SaskTel has always been excellent.
Compared to customers of other high-speed companies and Sympatico cutomers from other geographies we and everyone we know who have been customers with SaskTel have been very satisfied and have had very few access and speed problems. We also know many people who have switched to other companies and then returned to SaskTel. We know of no one who switched from a different company and went back to the other company.
One further point: We find it absolutely wonderful to get our monthly bill included with our telephone bil--one bill to pay to a homegrown company and no extra charges to anyone or need for extra credit cards!
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Review by jeff.apshkrum
Posted: 8.6 years ago
(review was emailed from domain sk.sympatico.ca)
undisclosed location
$40 per month
"Great Speed"
"Get it NOW!"
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Hi!
I have been on DSL here in Saskatchewan for a while now and it is kick ass.
In fact, Saskatchewan was the first place in North America to get widespread
DSL service. It is a great testing bed because of its relatively small
population of 1 million people. The download speeds usually range from
40k/s minimum to 250k/s or so, although I thing we have a lot more bandwidth
but I haven't found a good enough server yet. I downloaded a 100Mb file at a
constant 230k/s yesterday from a Canadian server, but even overseas servers
are quite fast. Upload speeds range from 20k/s to over 100k/s using a
program such as Napster or WinMX. There aren't any obvious differences in
speed during off and peak hours. It is fast all the time. They also have a
very good tech support staff. They actually know what they are talking
about, they aren't just reading out of a case book. Thanks!
Jeff Apshkrum
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SaskTel Saskatchewan
