Is shaw fibre pure fibre internet? My house connection doesnt seems so.

[chigs1137]

[g-idk]

Hi @chigs1137 , well it's a yes and no answer.  Shaw Fibre+ is Pure Fibre up until the node on the pole outside and then it becomes coxial cable for the connection to your home or say apt. building.  That's why they put the "+" right after Shaw Fibre so they could legally advertise that they do offer Fibre for the customers.  Shaw has installed a few test area's with 100% pure fibre to the home but not sure what ever came of it.  Maybe that optical Fibre line you have is Telus pre-install in case you ever went with their services, or maybe it's a Fibre line installed that could be used for future proofing.  I'm sure someone on here can explain it better than me, but that's the way I understand it.  

[chigs1137]

But a coax can never actually reach the speeds of optic fiber. So what's in my house is never fiber. So I don't have fiber speeds from shaw. That's what it is. So it is false advertising. Also why don't they use the Fibre Optics cable that telus or builder installed? 

[g-idk · Accepted solution]

Hi again @chigs1137 , with the DOCSIS 3.1 modems the coxial cable can handle speeds up to 2.5gbs download, not sure what the modem can handle for upload but I believe it is a gig.  Shaw doesn't currently offer those speeds for upload but it is a capability over a coxial cable. The magic is in the modem.  They don't use your Fibre optics cable because the system they use is not ready yet for that so called last mile.  All the telecom companies use suggestive terms that they get in trouble for occasionally, for Shaw it's not false advertising because no where do they say that it is Fibre direct to your home 100%, they get around this by the little + sign and your responsibility to click on the section on the web page that says Internet Fibre+ network so you can learn more about the hybrid system which is 99% Fibre.  And Yes it is a sticky subject with a lot of people because it can be misleading to the uniformed.  Well maybe someone else can chime in on this better than me.    

[chigs1137]

Fair enough. I that's how the rules and internet classification are made and shaw is within it kudos to them for that technology. Just one last question. So I have internet 300 with shaw for now but if I go with telus 300 which is around the same price will my speeds be different? As telus will use 100% fibre Optics cable and shaw can't? Also u still didn't explained why shaw doesn't uses fibre Optics when the cable is right there.

[g-idk]

@chigs1137 , The only advantage I can think of right off is download/upload symmetry which is a feature that Telus offers with their Fibre to the home service plan, basically Shaw can match them on download speeds but at this time cannot offer matching upload speed. So for example your Shaw 300 down and 100 up would be 300 down and 300 up with Telus.  If you are the type of person who is constantly uploading large files and you need that extra upload speed then Telus would be better, but there is nothing really wrong with 100 upload, you can still accomplish what you need to. To answer your question,  I believe the reason is the fibre line that Shaw uses only goes as far as the node outside on one of the poles, then at that point it is converted to the coxial cable system to come down the line to your home, so I believe at this time they don't have enough motivation to incur the expense of replacing all the coxial cable and equipment that still use them, they would not only have to replace the line going to someone's home, plus the removal of all the coxial cable inside the walls, Only newer homes and commercial/rental property's have pre-installed fibre lines all the rest of the homes and apt. buildings and condo's etc. are all wired for coxial cable.  I give Kudo's to Telus for biting the bullet and investing millions and millions into changing over from copper to fibre straight to the home.  My 50 year old buiding was re-done by Telus for 
Fibre but boy what a job they had, drilling thru concrete, going into everybodys apt and opening walls.  I can understand why Shaw is hesitant to go all in.  Okay well I guess that's my 2 cents worth.  Hope my explanation makes some sense. 

[mdk]

@chigs1137 -- Telus advertises using the "Pure Fiber" phrase, meaning their fiber-optic cable from the telephone-pole to their fiber-optic adapter box inside your home.

Shaw advertises using the "Fibre+" phrase, with a different spelling. Shaw means that 99% of their infrastructure is fiber-optic cable, but with the "last-mile" being a coaxial-cable into a single-family dwelling, and into older MURBs (Multiple Unit Residential Buildings). 

It is possible that any newly-built MURB will have fiber-optic cable into the primary "wiring closet" in the basement of the MURB, and then coaxial-cables running "upward" to one smaller wiring closet on each level of the MURB, and "lateral" coaxial-cables running into each unit on each level.

> I have internet 300 with Shaw for now but if I go with Telus 300 which is around the same price will my speeds be different?

Yes. When I had "Shaw Internet 300", my maximum download-speeds were about 10% over the promised "300". I had an older HITRON cable-modem, so my upload speed was about 10% over the promised 15 Megabits/second.  When I upgraded to "Shaw Fibre+ 500", I was given a newer cable-modem, giving me over 500 Mbps for download, and nearly 100 Mbps for upload.  My impression is that "Telus 300" will give you 300 Mbps for download, and 300 Mbps for upload. So, short answer: for 300 Mbps service, Shaw's download speed will be 10% faster than Telus' download speed, while Shaw's upload speed (100 Mbps) is only 1/3 of Telus' upload speed.

A point to consider: it is difficult to find servers on the Internet that can "push out" data at the really-fast speeds --- over 100 Mbps, no matter how fast your personal connection can "receive". Most servers are busy, and most servers have multiple simultaneous transfers.  So, your personal transfer could be, say, 10% of the 1000 Mbps service that the server's network adapter is capable of transferring.

> Telus will use 100% fibre-Optic cable and shaw can't?

Shaw did, and maybe still does offer fiber-to-the-home in a specific area in Calgary. My understanding that it was a "test", not a "production" offering to all its BC/AB/SK/MB/NO customers.

> Explain why Shaw doesn't uses fiber-optic when the cable is right there.

Those fiber-optic cables were installed by Telus employees, for exclusive use by Telus customers. At this time, I think that it is unlikely that any of those fiber-optic cables are connected to the Shaw "backbone".

> I don't have fiber speeds from Shaw.

True, unless you're paying Shaw way more than $200/month for anything much faster than "Shaw Fibre+ Gig" or "Shaw Fibre+ Gig 1.5" Internet speed. 

> Why don't they use the Fiber-optic cable that Telus or builder installed? 

Telus is gradually phasing-out all the "twisted-pair" copper wires between the telephone-pole and their "demarcation box" on the outside of your home, by proactively running fiber-optic cable from the telephone-pole into your home.  As you stated, in your case, that Telus fiber-optic cable is not connected to anything inside your home.

Note that the Telus "twisted-pair" copper-wire is limited to 75 Mbps traffic.  So, fiber-optic cable, not twisted-pair, will eventually be "everywhere" that Telus offers service.

Note that the Telus fiber-optic cable is connected, at the telephone-pole, to other Telus-owned cables. That cable is not connected to Shaw's cables on the telephone-pole. I can imagine that Telus would be quite p*ssed off if a Shaw technician disconnected the fiber-optic cable, at the telephone-pole, and connected it to the Shaw-owned fiber-optic cables. Would this be "theft of services" type of crime?

At a friend's house, Telus, without being asked by the friend, ran fiber-optic cable from the telephone-pole to the outside of her home, looping the end of their cable around the oil-tank's exterior filler-pipe.  They did not enter her home, to connect the "last mile". Telus was "upgrading" all the houses on her street, at the same time -- "fuure-proofing", and then trying to "win" customers away from Shaw's services, to subscribe to Telus' services.

Perhaps, the current high cost of copper cable makes Telus want to remove it, and sell "bulk" copper.  🙂

The current melt-down value of a CAD $0.01 coin (minted before 1988) is almost $0.02 US, because the penny was minted using copper. [Older CAD $0.10 coins were minted using silver, and their melt-down value is a suprising $1.80 US.]  

[rpetti]

This is 100% false advertising, and I've complained to Shaw about it on numerous occasions. It's especially egregious when they charge more for Fibre+ than existing plans of equivalent speed, even though they are using the exact same infrastructure. They've been nagging me to "upgrade" from my current 300 plan to "Fibre+ 300" despite it being more expensive with zero speed improvement.

[Keldude]

I was a Telus "fibre" connected customer but got fed up with the company so I switched to Shaw. This service is supplied on a "copper coax cable" and the performance loss is extreme. When I clicked on a link on the Telus fibre the response was instant. With Shaw on "coax" the wait time for a screen load can take over 15 seconds!!! Horrendous. Bring on the fibre NOW! This is disgusting service you're providing and I'm getting more frustrated every day. I'm not talking about "downloads" I'm talking about just surfing the internet. I even get the "three pulsing dots" from time to time on my TV because of the long delays. Horrible!

[rstra]

@Keldude  You need to get Shaw to do some troubleshooting, that isn’t normal.