After two tech visits and many more calls to support they...

[Network-Admin]

After two tech visits and many more calls to support they have finally admitted it is an issue with signal at the service box (green box near my house). Techs have tested the run to my house as well and wiring inside my house.

It has been about two weeks since they said they would look into the signal quality issues at the green box and I'm still having the outages. Talking on teams with co-workers also on shaw in my city and it seems this issue is ubiquitous in all quadrants of the city. 

Coincidentally my 2 year contract is up so I think it's obvious what it's time to do

[cpmrich36]

try and call support again and ush them to check your signal, free service call.  you shouldn't have to suffer in silence for his long.  

[Regis · Accepted solution]

I wish I could update this post as it keeps getting replies years later. I ended calling Shaw and having them sending me a new router. After that the issue stopped. I had another issue friend who had the same issue and Shaw was unable to see any disconnects like they couldn't with my router. He ended up calling and getting sent a new router too (and this also resolved his issue). I wonder if Shaw even fixes the routers that are faulty... it seems people keep complaining this is an issue and Shaw keeps saying "we don't see an issue on our end." Right...

Also not happy with Shaw and their very misleading "Fiber" marketing. Anyway, I'm with Telus now.

[mdk]

@Regis -- Also not happy with Shaw and their very misleading "Fiber" marketing.

One friend on Telus has copper-wires to the nearest telephone-pole, and then a connection to Telus fiber-optic cable.

Another friend on Telus has fiber-optic cable from a box beside the computer, out to the nearest telephone-pole.

I have coaxial-cable from my Shaw cable-modem to the nearest telephone-pole, and then a connection to Shaw fiber-optic cable.

A few neighbourhoods in Calgary have Shaw's fiber-optic cable directly into their home.

There is nothing "very misleading" about these different connectivity solutions.

Note that Shaw provides hundreds of simultaneous audio/video TV signals through coaxial cable, just like fiber-optic cable can handle the same streams.

[Regis]

It looks like Shaw has since updated their marketing on their website. Previously it said "Fiber+" and made no mention that it was only fiber to your box and coax to your home. Now it seems to list repeatedly that coax is involved (which it should). Not mentioning the coax is misleading because fiber to your box is NOT the same as fiber to your home. Fiber to your home is able to handle a lot greater speeds (up and down simultaneously). Even on Shaw's website their Fiber+ only states download speeds and doesn't mention upload speeds. This is because they likely don't want to show that their upload speeds are tiny compared to Telus upload speeds. They are limited because again, fiber to the box is not the same as fiber to your home. I'm not saying fiber to box is not capable of fast speeds, but saying it's the same as fiber to your home is incorrect which Shaw previous marketing implied (which is why Telus sued Shaw).

You might not find it misleading because you understand that coax is involved, but for the average internet use they'll see "fiber" and assume it's the same as Telus fiber and it's just not the same.

Shaw Facing Lawsuit Filed by Telus Claiming 'Misleading' Internet Advertising - Top Class Actions Ca...

[rstra]

@Regis  What is this box you ar referring to?

[mdk]

@Regis -- fiber to the box is not the same as fiber to your home. 

True, but how much are you paying to Shaw/Telus, to get what speed?  If you are paying for "Internet Gig", both coaxial-cable and fiber-optic cable can transmit at that speed, without "breaking a sweat".  Just pay more money per month, if you want faster speeds through the same cables.

By "box", I assume that you mean a "concentrator" type of box somewhere up a telephone-pole on your street, where the fibre-optic cable is switched to the coaxial-cable running into your home.

Note that Shaw Business customers can now get "Gig 2.0" speeds into the cable-modem.

[rstra]

Also, other providers have played loosely with the reference to fiber optical cable; Bell with their Fibe  TV and Telus with Optik, both products appeared when the companies still had twisted pair copper running to homes.

[mdk]

@rstra -- both products appeared when the companies still had twisted pair copper running to homes

This is a "chicken-and-egg" problem.

At some point in time, 100% of the Telus connections into homes were copper lines.  It was not logistically-possible for Telus to upgrade 100% of their customers within the same day/week/month.  So, some customers were "first", if they lived in a specific neighbourhood where the fiber-optic cable was being rolled-out, and if Telus had enough fiber-optic-to-Ethernet boxes for each customer.