As with a lot of services and utilities in Canada, one thing that really struck me when I first moved here was how expensive TV and Internet is compared to what I’d been used to in the UK. Fear not though – there’s some basic steps you can take to ensure that you get the best Internet and TV deals possible. I’ll cover it all in this article so you can understand the market and save money on your Internet and TV.
WHAT TO EXPECT:
The Canadian Internet and TV market explained
Canadian TV and Internet is expensive. By international comparison (using Numbeo’s data), Canada is the 11th or 12th most expensive country in the world for Internet. Whilst the average cost across the country is expensive, it also varies substantially from city to city (check out our cost of living in Canada article for a breakdown by city), so if you’re not careful you can easily get ripped off.
The better news is that that access to high speed Internet is generally pretty good across the country. Using the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission target of 50 Mbps download, 10 Mbps upload, and unlimited data allowance as a benchmark; 97.7% of the population in urban areas and 40.8% of the population in rural areas meet this. So the chances are no matter where you’re moving, you’ll have access to decent Internet.
The big Internet and TV providers
There are a few companies that provide Internet and TV across most of the country. The majority of these providers are former cable or telecommunication regional monopolies (before the introduction of equal-access competition introduced in the 1990s). These are: Telus, Rogers, Bell, Shaw and to a lesser extent Cogeco and Videotron.
The smaller regional Internet and TV Providers
To allow competition to the market, Canada imposes a mandatory wholesale access obligation on the former monopolies that own and operate the physical telecommunications networks. This means that independent competitors gain access to the physical network infrastructure at regulated wholesale rates to deliver their Internet and TV services to consumers. There are many companies that fall into this category and can offer competitive bundles compared to the big players. Most of them tend to operate regionally (rather than nationwide) but some of the bigger ones include: TekSavvy, Vmedia and Distributel.
How to pick the best Internet and TV provider
There’s a few things you need to keep in mind when deciding which Internet and TV provider to go with. There is a pretty expansive array of providers out there so finding the best one can be tough. Don’t just blindly go with one of the big Internet and TV providers because you likely will get ripped off. I’m not saying that the big providers definitely won’t be the best choice for you, but just make sure you’ve considered your options and know why you want to go with them.
When we were looking for Internet and TV deals there were a few lessons we learned the hard way, so here’s our tips and tricks to make sure you get the best TV and Internet deals:
You don’t need your Internet to be as fast as you think you do.
The Internet companies will always try and up-sell by making out you need super-fast Internet just to surf the web! Honestly, you don’t need 500Mbps download speed unless you’re running a small multinational corporate empire from your basement. But seriously… do some research based on how you use the Internet to find out what speed you’re going to need. Considerations to help decide what speed you need should include:
- how many devices you have connected,
- what you do on those devices (streaming 4K TV, online gaming, video conferences) and,
- how many people will be using those devices, and for what, at one time.
For most 4-people households, 100Mbps will be more than enough (and you could pretty certainly get away with slower). For example, there’s only two of us in our house but we use the Internet all day for things like video calls (at the same time) and streaming 4K TV, and our Internet package is 75Mbps and we’re never anything close to using that bandwidth.
Small, localised providers generally offer fast Internet at lower costs – but do your research.
There really is a vast array of Internet providers across Canada. And the majority of them are very localised, only offering services in specific regions, cities or even neighbourhoods within cities. This can make it difficult to narrow down who to check out. So use comparison websites to see what companies provide services in your area.
Some of the smaller local providers offer very competitive deals that can give you faster Internet at significantly cheaper rates than the big players. But it can feel kind of odd signing up with a company that seems like it’s just some dude in his garage. So do your research and make sure you find some positive reviews of the service provider before you sign up.
For example, if you live in Toronto, you might automatically think your best bet is going to be one of the big providers, but there’s a bunch of smaller options that provide faster Internet at a smaller cost. Beanfield Metroconnect is just one such example, they offer 1 Gigabit/second speed at rates you’d be paying for 100 Mbps with other providers and they get good feedback from customers reviews. There’s dozens of these smaller providers throughout the country that serve really limited areas but offer good deals.
Use comparison websites – but don’t trust the prices.
The comparison websites don’t seem to be that great in terms of having accurate prices for the services. Especially for combined TV and Internet. So definitely use them, but with caution. They are good to get an idea of the providers that serve your area (back to my point about a smorgasbord of highly localised providers), but don’t take as gospel the prices they list – the cheapest on the comparison website won’t necessarily be the cheapest when you actually click through to the end.
There’s normally hidden, extra costs.
Apply a healthy dose of scepticism to the headline cost you see on providers websites, too. Usually there are hidden extra costs. For example, they may charge you a monthly rental fee for the modem or TV box, or an upfront charge. There may be installation fees. Then you’ve got to consider if they’re giving you a discounted rate for the first x months. Obviously this is good, but what about when that rate ends in two months? Basically – make sure you dig beyond the headline rate, compare like-for-like and figure out your total cost over the course of a year and see who comes out on top.
Check out what hardware (i.e. modem/router and TV box) they will be giving you with the package. For example, the modem/router my provider gave me when I signed up with them was a reconditioned one rather than new. If you’re going to have loads of devices connected to the router or you need your wi-fi signal to cover a large area, you’ll need to check if the kit is going to work for you (or if you’ll need to buy different yourself).
Being able to watch live TV will help you settle in.
I debated whether to get a live TV package at all when I moved to Canada – do I only need Netflix or whatever streaming platforms? In the end I went for a basic live TV package and I would recommend you at least do the same. Being able to watch Canadian TV helps you understand more about Canada and Canadian culture. It makes you feel like you’re settling in. Watch your local evening news, watch the coverage of Canada Day, see what re-runs they’re showing on CBC – it all helps you to acclimatise, integrate and ultimately feel like you belong.
Most TV providers are now pushing their IPTV service offering. This basically means that live TV is delivered over your Internet connection rather than satellite or cable. I honestly am not a big fan of IPTV as I find the interface slower and the TV picture quality less reliably HD or 4K than cable or satellite – but it seems to be the way of things here. So if your provider wants to charge you more for IPTV than standard cable – I would say don’t bother.
Hopefully, armed with the pointers above you can find yourself a good deal for TV and Internet. I’m not going to recommend specific providers on this page because they vary so much from region to region that I wouldn’t be able to give you reliable recommendations. So I would suggest you start your search for the best Internet and TV deals on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC’s) webpage which has a list of comparison websites. Happy hunting!