ISPs in Manitoba
COMP1260 > Understanding the Internet
IntroductionManitoba has a variety of internet service providers, or ISPs, to choose from depending on your location. In Winnipeg there is a selection from basic dial-up to high speed DSL and Cable. If you live in a rural town then you will have to see if you are covered by some of the rural options that provide service via wireless towers or satellite. There is also a new service provided by some of the cellular service providers that allow you to access the internet anywhere you can get cellular service. See the ISPs page for more information on these technologies.
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...by studentsBack in the day when I first got a computer the internet was still relatively new, at least to most users. The only way to connect to the internet was via dial-up modems, an archaic device that takes about an hour to download a single music file! As technology advanced newer more affordable high speed services became available. When I first switched to cable about 8 years ago the differences was like night and day! The internet came alive with information that you could access without having to wait 5 minutes for the page to finish loading. Now a days if a page doesn't load in 10 seconds one thinks their computer is broken. If I ever had to go back to using dial-up or another service as slow as it I think I would give up on the internet and go read a book. I would be finished the book by the time my pages would be done loading anyway. :) |
Winnipeg Options
There are many different ISPs to choose from in Winnipeg. I will cover the two giants, MTS and Shaw, in this section.
MTS provides a DSL service to the Winnipeg area and some areas outside of Winnipeg as well and Shaw provides a cable service to the Winnipeg area. Both are competitively priced and offer similar speeds as well as offering discounts for bundling with their other services (TV and home phone). Some advantages to going with MTS are they give you 10-30 Hours of WiFi access free with their plans at MTS hotspots located throughout the city and for a fee you can upgrade to unlimited access. Also with MTS since they use your existing phone line so in most cases there are no extra cables to install in your home. Some advantages to going with Shaw are that they offer a student plan to university students which is about 50% off their rates for the school year. Also they have a Refer a Friend offer where if you refer a new customer to them they will give you a free month of service for each successful referral.
There are also many dial-up services available in Winnipeg, but these are quite slow compared to the offerings above and are a really out dated technology. Many modern computers do not include the modem required to connect via dial-up anymore.
Brandon Options
Brandon is the second largest city in Manitoba and has two major ISPs giving access to high speed internet.
MTS offers the same service as they do in Winnipeg to Brandon customers; they get all the same benefits as mentioned above as well. Westman Communications offers a cable service similar to Shaw. Brandon also has access to many of the rural options talked about in the next section, although they tend to give a slower service for a similar price compared to MTS and Westman so I would recommend one of these two.
Rural Options
The rural options in Manitoba are much more limited in both availability and speed. Their coverage varies greatly, so you will have to check which is available in your area. Many of these ISPs would be suitable for a cabin as well, with their large rural coverage area.
WiBand offers a wireless internet service to many towns and communities south of Winnipeg.
I-NetLink offers a similar wireless service to rural areas of Manitoba, but coverage is mostly in the western half of the province.
Xplornet offers a satalite internet service, but I could not locate their coverage area. On their website you can enter your postal code to check if your area is covered by their service.
MTS also offers many rural areas with DSL and dial-up services.
Many dial-up services are also available but you have to becareful that where you are dialing from isn't counted as long distance otherwise you will have a huge phone bill. As mentioned in the Winnipeg options dial-up is very out dated and too slow for most internet needs. You also have to make sure your computer has a dial-up modem as they don't come standard with computers anymore!
Cellular Options
Internet access through cellular towers is something relatively new to Canada, and two cellular providers currently offer this service in Manitoba. MTS and Rogers both have a cellular internet service to many areas in Manitoba that have cellular access. MTS has a larger coverage map for their cellular access but this does not include their cellular internet service, which has a much smaller coverage area. Rogers, on the other hand, has internet access almost everywhere you get Rogers cellular access. This service is very new and very convenienient, but is quite expensive still! Although Rogers has a larger coverage area, MTS has a plan that includes unlimited data transfers where as Rogers does not, so this might be a deciding factor for you if you are going to do a lot of downloading.
Further Readings
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