Well, in theory, I should have wireless broadband here in two days, provided all goes well (read: if there's a decent signal at my location).

We have determined that the cost of the wireless broadband, PLUS a basic VoIP subscription from Brama Telecom, will cost us less per month than our current dial-up internet & regular telephone service.

However, from what I can see around the internet, like for example on RedFlagDeals.com forums, and also based on my opinion of the Brama Telecom website (which goes far out of its way to not let you know what the darned VoIP box costs until it arrives on your credit card), I'm pretty skeptical about their service & practices..

Anybody have anything good or bad to say about them?

Thanks,
Sasha

No, since I don't live in Canada I am afraid I can't comment much. However I would be a little concerned about being provided wireless rather than a wired connection. Maybe not so much for security, but for bandwidth purposes as well. G is 54mbps in theory, but you get less than that. I do surf on wireless through my router, and my service plan includes 20mbps down, 5mbps up. However with wireless and the optimal setting on my card and such, I get ~5 or 6mbps, and thats only a foot away from the router. If I use an ethernet cable on my notebook, I get the full 20mbps speed. I know this by downloading things and comparing it vs wireless. Even on my old 10 year old AMD I get the full 20mbps downloads. (~2300KB/s)


Maybe Rogers, or Sympatico might be available in your area? BTW the only reason why I am familiar with some Canadian ISPS, is cause I was curious about them, and I have to say I am disappointed in them. All seem to have a 100GB per month cap. Unlike here in the states, no data restrictions (for the most part, perhaps RoadRunner and some areas with Comcast has a cap) To me, thats just way too restrictive. I myself don't need a 20mbps connection, I was perfectly happy with a 5mbps, but I got it at a great deal. Hell, a 2-3mbps is fine, as long as I can have all the data I want, no cap.

Jeebizz,

thanks for the comments.

Just in case we're not on the same page here, let me clarify:

The provision of broadband to my house, is via wireless "Motorola Canopy Broadband" and the advertized/marketed connection speed is <= 1.5MBit. I asked about this technology in another thread. This signal comes from a cellular-type tower, to the modem which is mounted with an antenna, on the roof of the house. From that modem, a cat5 cable comes down and terminates at a wall-jack, which will feed my firewall/LAN/DHCP/DNS machine, which in turn supplies A) my desktop machine, and B) a wireless router which feeds the roommates desktop + the laptop.
The signal provided by the cell-tower to the roof-modem is encrypted fairly well, and I suspect the modem itself is "configured" such that *IT* can connect to the cell-tower, while a miscreant sitting outside in the back yard, could not.

This plan (which is from a Co. called "Surfside Highspeed") apparently has no limit on quantity of up/download per month, but is limited in RATE depending on system load, no. of users online, etc..

There is NOTHING else in my area, save for:
1) 21.6 kbit dial-up which we are suffering now, or:
2) EXPENSIVE, rate-limited, quantity-limited, satellite-dish crap.

There's no cable, no Rogers, no Eastlink, etc..

I had a 5MBit cable connection in the city, until I moved out here to the sticks, and it was IMO brutally fast; certainly adequate for anything I ever needed it for.

So now, back to this VoIP thing:

This is something we're investigating, and which is totally unrelated to the wireless-broadband provider. Brama is a separate company out of Ontario or wherever which one signs up with, and they send us a VoIP box, which goes between the broadband modem, and the computer(s) or router. This 'voip box' has a telephone connected.

So, hopefully this should clarify anything we were not in sync about, as well as just making the wwhole scenario clearer for everyone

Another thing I find sketchy about the BRama VoIP thing, is that their definition of "unlimited" != "unlimited" -- which I find reprehensible. Granted the "limit' of minutes per month is really large, it STILL does not allow for defining it as "unlimited"

Sasha

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=84101 has a very small number of haters, but the rest think the service is great. I typed "brama telecom sucks" to Google and got nothing that rang any alarm bells. Looks like a solid and cheap service.

Thanks Xavier,

I did some searching too, but really, one never knows how many of the folks who vote yay or nay on a given thing, have really tried it, or whether they actually *work* for the company, or its competitors. So, I figured I might have a better feeling about comments made by folks here, assuming I was even the least bit familiar with them.

I did come across a lot of folks/comments on the 'net who DID, like you say, claim it's a good, cheap service. What I also saw a lot of is, "Their customer service and/or tech support STINKS, but the service is pretty good."

These days, it's not uncommon for cust. service to be lacking, IMO, and it's been shown (for example on First Estate and W5 exposees) that big companies go OUT OF THEIR WAY to keep their phoning customers "..trapped within the electronic telephone system-- make sure they can't get a human on the line.." which has spawned such websites as "gethuman.com" which provides phone extensions and direct-lines vor loads of companies, and their respective personnel, so one doesn't have to go through the telephone system.

This is all well and good, as long as there is not a regular need for service. If the service is problem-ridden, AND you can't get a human on a phone, then it's bad news!

Sasha