Lightspeed review: ADSL Internet service provider in Metro Vancouver 
In searching for a residential Internet service provider in Metro Vancouver, one of my main goals was to avoid Shaw and Telus. At the very least, I could inform others as to whether there is actually a viable alternative. Plus, all of the other residents in my building use one of “the big two”, so I had a bit of a backup plan there.
As it turns out, so far so good (about a month and a half in) with Lightspeed Internet Communications. Note that I signed up for its Internet and phone bundle for just over $50 per month after tax, so I’ll review its phone service in another post. Note that Lightspeed does not provide television service (although it’s good on your wallet and time to go without cable TV anyway).
Lightspeed’s Internet service on its own as of February 2009 is $34.90 per month plus tax on a month-to-month basis. This is a couple of dollars cheaper per month if you sign up for a contract. The price includes a $4.95 system access fee since Telus unfortunately owns all the wiring. Thankfully Lightspeed is not Telus, as it has its own network and customer support. The price is comparable to Shaw or Telus’s prices after you read through the big two’s promo and contract junk. To use Lightspeed’s ADSL Internet service, you must have either an existing landline phone (a VoIP line with Shaw does not count); or pay a $10 CRTC monthly fee; or bundle it with Lightspeed’s VoIP phone service for $10 per month (which is what I did).
The speed that I get with Lightspeed is consistently over 2.5Mbps for downloads and 850kbps for uploads, no matter what time of day it is. Divide those numbers by 8 to get the more user-friendly speed in bytes instead of bits. The total monthly upload and download bandwidth limit is a combined 200gb.
Here are my general notes about Lightspeed, for which I hope to be using for many years:
- Setup is free, but you will have to get temporary access to your phone room (or equivalent box) for the owner of the wiring (typically Telus) to do a one-time test on the line.
- I have not had any connection issues except for the weekend after I first signed up, when I had to reboot the modem several times before the connection started working again many hours later. I have yet to figure out what the problem was.
- You do not get a free modem. You must either purchase one for $60 from them (plus an ATA if you are using their phone service) or you can use an existing DSL modem if you have one or can get one for cheaper elsewhere.
- Phone support during their business hours is great as I have always had a live person answer the phone immediately.
- E-mail support has been either speedy or non-responsive. I had good success following up via phone.
- If you’re in a condo that is outfitted with several Ethernet outlets, you can’t use them unless you’re with Shaw. So you’ll have to rely on your router. Remember that while ADSL doesn’t interfere with your phone service, it uses your phone lines.
- For the techies: Lightspeed doesn’t force me to use their own SMTP server for sending e-mails. You might see this is a good or bad thing. I see this as a good thing.
- The Lightspeed website could really use an update. However, the money they would spend on marketing is theoretically being used to maintain and improve their service… I hope.
Overall, Lightspeed is a good service with friendly, responsive employees who know their product. It is not blazing fast for those people who download 10 movies concurrently via torrents, but then again I’d be happy if my fellow Lightspeed customers aren’t doing that anyway. Lightspeed has provided a reliable, fast Internet connection at all hours for my personal and work needs and is an alternative to Shaw and Telus that you should consider.
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March 17th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Julia says:
it's difficult to know about your alternatives to shaw/telus. I use a company called Novus for internet/cable – they only operate in downtown vancouver. The service has been great – and is slightly cheaper than the big 2.
Going with a non 'big2' provider does usually still require coordination with them as they usually have to still 'unlock' your lines…really annoying.
June 4th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Ron says:
I'm in Drumheller Alberta, and I think this is exactly what I am looking for as I am currently renting a house and I have Shaw. Since we moved in March it has been consistently excruciatingly slow.
Numerous calls have been made to Shaw and they know its slow, (I think they are putting in new fibre) it is ridiculous. They have had to credit my last three months, as its been dialup speeds.
Telus is such a mess, I have put up with the sloowwww shaw speeds.
But after reading your post, I might investigate this option.
We don't currently have a land line hooked up, but from what I read in your post, we don't need one hooked up .
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:52 am
Riun says:
I will be right up front from the onset and state- I am a reseller. My company is Cyber Gold Communications. I re-sell LightSpeed and DolphinTel produts. This may come across as being bias as I have an interest in the products but if you hear me out, you may see where I am comming from.
I have have been a re-seller of similiar products provided by much larger companies in the past (1997-2005) and always found that as the big guys grew, I was shut out as my customer base did not meet their levels to be important to them.
Since meeting Jason, Laurel and the rest of the crew at Lightspeed (mid 2005), I found a refreshing attitude that changed my mind about possibly getting out of the re-seller market. Jason (owner) really cares about everyone that is connected to his company- customers, staff and yes- the re-seller. I have seen him pour his heart and soul (and a lot of money) into the company to make upgrades, changes and life generally better for EVERYONE.
He listens to the feed back. He thinks about it and then acts.
In the early days of VoIP, I will admit there were problems but then then again- even the BIG guys with deep pockets had problems with quality. Some of the REALLY BIG ones has problems that matched their advertising budgets. I think you all know who that was. Others finally gave up and went out of business.
As technology has evolved, I have seen first hand how the Quality of the VoiP has gone from fair (quite often not reliable) to 99.999 percent crystal clear… and that gets even better if you are not using an outside provider for your internet connection. ie: If you use their infrastructe (adsl and VoIP) your VoIP can be better than using their VoIP service connected over one of the other BroadBand providers. (shaw, telus etc as your ISP)
The feed back that was being sent back to Jason was heard. Keep it all in house and the quality was even better. His response was was the BIRTH of the "FREEDOM PLANS"- ADSL and VoIP combined packages. From what I have heard from Support- this move cut their support calls down drastically.
Again- yes- I may be deemed as bit biased but I can say from being there through the evolvement, LightSpeed / DolphinTel has lead the way with Quality Products, Good Customer Support (although a 24/7 would be nice but not usually required because their product is very stable) and easy on the budget.
Oh.. before I close- Did you know that Jason was the FIRST company out here on the west coast to offer Dry Loop (aka naked adsl) connection? Telus followed his lead!! Quiet the compliment from them follow the little guy's brainstorm.
I hope this helps a bit for those that are looking at VoIP and / or ADSL services. If I can be of any further assistance to answer other question, feel free to visit my web site -www.cybergoldcommunications.ca or call.
July 8th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Ann says:
I am an internet lightspeed customer that has regreted getting into a 3 year contract with this company because of the HORRIBLE customer service given by LAUREL at the billing department.
right now I hate them more then I ever hated telus or shaw.