Bell Sympatico offered me fast service

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Andrew Overholt <overholt-H+wXaHxf7aLQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>

| This is Bell Optimax, right?  A friend of mine tried to order it a while
| ago but the customer service rep. didn't know anything about it.  It's
| not actually fibre to the premises and it's pretty expensive IIRC ($70
| and $100?)

Damned if I know.

This page lets me type in my phone number and then shows offered
services:
http://www.bell.ca/shopping/PrsShpInt_NewAccess.page?userType=NEW

Quite confusing.

The fast one is called "Total Internet Max", speed is "up to 16Mbps",
and costs $87.95/month.

Th next one down is "Total Internet Performance", speed is "up to
7Mbps", and costs "$47.95/month.

I'm guessing TIM is ADSL2+.  See
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20051247-7meg-adsl2-fiber-sympatico-question-very-important
and that TIP is their common garden variety ADSL.

If they have RDSLAMs (Remote DSLAMs) for TIM service, I would hope that 
they would use them for TIP as well if the TIP service is constrained by 
distance to Central Office to be below the specs.  I would further hope 
that this would apply for lines provided to other ISPs.  But who knows.

I see that the mail I've got refers to "Total Internet Performance
service" "from $42.95/month".  The very hard to read fine-print
footnote says that this requires a 2 year contract.  (Of course how
can they be below specs if they say "up to" in the first place.)  In
any case, the wording certainly suggests that this plan includes "new,
next-generation fibre optic network".

What a piece of marketing crap.  Too bad they are unwilling to explain
their offerings in technical terms.  And in simple, non-slimy wording.
The part of the letter they want me to read is 9" long; the part they
don't want me to read is 3/4" long AND HAS MORE WORDS, all jammed
together with no paragraph breaks.  The footnotes don't even
start at the margin.
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