Rural Internet in Southwestern Ontario Canada

I live in the country, about 20 minutes from the city of Sarnia, about five minutes from the town of Wyoming. Getting internet where I live has been a nonstop battle. You'd think I lived in the middle of no where, but seriously civilization is not the far away! It drives me crazy!!

When I first went to rent the place I live now, I called Bell Canada to confirm they had high speed internet there and they assured me that they did. They lied! The Bell guy shows up to hook it up and nope, sorry,m the best they can do is dial up! As that's not bad enough they actually tried to charge me $250 for breaking my high sped internet contract with them (as I had a contract with them from my last place). Excuse me?! They should be paying me $250! They couldn't uphold their end of the contract not me!

I gave Bell the boot after the high speed contract BS and decided to give a Telus wireless stick a try. Oh boy! That was a mistake. It was fast and reliable, but they charge $60 for 5 GB, and $30 for every GB you went over! Ouch! When you work online that's nasty!

Finally EBTech came to our area and offered internet off a radio tower. It was unlimited for $60 a month! I was so happy!! I thought my internet woes was finally over! Boy, was I wrong!! I was lucky if it worked 70% of the time and it worked well 50% of the time. It was basically as slow as dial up and sites timed up when I tried to put art on them that was 5MB and over (and that's when it was working well!!). It went out for hours and even days, and if we called EBTech to complain we got nothing but a run around. I complained four times on their Facebook wall in the two and a half years we had EBTech. I never once swore or threatened them, yet after the 4^th time they actually cut us off. Middle of the months, I'm paid up in full, been a customer for two and a half years, and they actually cut us off from paid for service because I complained that their internet sucked. Yep, I'm serious! They did the same thing to a couple down the street from me; the wife was mad because they had been out for three days, she called and complained, and they cut them off!.

Obviously after getting cut off for complaining about their poor internet, I wanted nothing more to do with EBTech so am now trying Xplornet. It's only be a week and a half, but so far so good! I haven't lost internet once so far!

So, for rural dwellers, here's the break down:

Bell Canada:

$30 for unlimited dial up plus $35 for a phone you really cannot use. Works great, but obviously very slow and only one computer can run at a time (so my son and I cannot work online at the same time). Way too slow for streaming and downloading a single hour long TV show takes about half a day or so.

Telus Wireless Stick:

$60 for 5GB and $30for each GB you go over. Works great, very fast, but staying under 5GB is extremely hard. Prepare for big bills. Only one computer at a time can use it.

EBTech Rural Wireless (off a radio tower): $60 unlimited. Almost as slow as dial up, very unreliable (Goes out several times a week,sometimes for hours). Poor customer service. Will cut you off if you complain. Works on multiple computers (just goes slower)

Xplornet (Satellite)

$90 for 40GB (They don't charge you more if you go over, they slow you down to dial up speed). Very fast and very reliable. Works well during bad weather. Fast enugh to stream and downloads/uploads very quickly). Works on multiple computers.

What's the lesser of the evils. I think Xplornet. I work online and reliable beats unlimited and cheaper.