"Best" internet provider in Toronto area?

[ated12]

Hey, I've got a friend that lives in the Toronto area (by the border, if that matters) who's looking to upgrade his internet service. His current ISP is Bell Sympatico, and his results on speedtest.net were something around 2MB down, 320kb up, and 80 ping under 50 miles. I'm trying to help him pick out an internet provider, but I don't know much at all about Canadian ISPs (I'm from the U.S). The main thing I hear about is how a lot of the major ISPs have bad downtime and throttle their services.

I tried to look around and find some information on the faster Cable services (My friend is looking for a connection he can game on with less online lag), and the fastest service I found was 3web. The platinum edition of their service is supposed to get 16MB down, but all I've heard about 3web after looking them up is that their downtime is terrible, they have horrible customer support, they're unreliable, etc. I don't want to stick my friend in a worse online situation than he's currently in, so if anyone could help me out with suggestions on ISPs, feedback, tips, etc, I'd really appreciate it.

 

[Walter]

Sympatico has satisfied all my needs. Who needs a wife?

 

[Risus]

I am satisfied with Sympatico as well.

 

[hermite]

I have a friend who likes this one: http://www.montreal-dsl.com/ Available in Ontario and Quebec.

 

[DurkaDurka]

In Toronto your choices are Rogers or Sympatico. 3'rd parties wholesalers also lease local loops from Bell which allows them to offer their own service but they are dependant on Bell up to the DSALM. In other words, if you have slow service due to being too far from the CO, it won't matter if you have sympatico or tech savy etc, it will still be slow.

 

[Unforgiven]

Forget customer support. Make sure your friend's system is operating at optimal performance up to your router and that's about all you can hope for. Look for fast servers for that computer and take the good stuff when it comes and never mind when it sucks.

If it's latency crucial gaming then move to a local lan to play it with a few friends. New ones if you have to go that route.

Rogers has the fastest connection but you will find your ping can fluctuate quite a bit with them. If you have the money that is.

And if you do have the money to get into some serious gaming then get a life ya dork! heh heh

Look what happened to Durka! 8O

 

[DurkaDurka]

Forget customer support. Make sure your friend's system is operating at optimal performance up to your router and that's about all you can hope for. Look for fast servers for that computer and take the good stuff when it comes and never mind when it sucks.

If it's latency crucial gaming then move to a local lan to play it with a few friends. New ones if you have to go that route.

Rogers has the fastest connection but you will find your ping can fluctuate quite a bit with them. If you have the money that is.

And if you do have the money to get into some serious gaming then get a life ya dork! heh heh

Look what happened to Durka! 8O

Fatality!