Eastlink vs Bell Aliant Comparision December 15, 2011

I've had Bell Fibre Op now for a couple months and in that time, it seems to be creating a lot of buzz in Charlottetown. I've also been asked what the difference is and which is faster a few times over the past week. Which is faster isn't really a good question to ask when it comes down to it. The speed is moreso determined by the price you wish to pay. I've narrowed it down in the following table from fastest to slowest based on download speeds.

Download speed is important when your browsing the web or playing games vs Upload speed is important when your uploading stuff like Videos or Photos to the web. If you're not sure, ignore upload speed.

(Click the column, in bold, you want it to sort by)

Provider	Into House By	Download Speed	Upload Speed	Cost
Bell Aliant	Fibre Op	170	30	$249.95 (12 month contract)
Eastlink	Coax Cable	100	5	$164.95
Bell Aliant	Fibre Op	70	30	$99.95
Eastlink	Coax Cable	40	2	$92.95
Bell Aliant	Fibre Op	30	30	$82.95
Eastlink	Coax Cable	20	1	$62.95
Bell Aliant	Fibre Op	15	15	$67.95
Bell Aliant	Copper	7	0.6	$67.95
Eastlink	Coax Cable	5	1	$50.95
Bell Aliant	Copper	1.5	0.6	$57.95
Eastlink	Coax Cable	1.5	0.25	$29.95

At the end of the day, the difference is price and how it is delivered to your home/business. 50Mbps is 50Mbps, latency being another issue.

Typically, Bell Aliant has better latency then Eastlink which is important when it comes to online gaming.

Copper is very limited when it comes to distance. The speed you get is determined by how far away from the Central Office you are. This is standard when it comes to xDSL or Digital Subscriber Lines.

With Coax Cable, everyone is all on the same pipe, same as your water supply in the city and distance isn't as big an issue as Copper but eventually the signal stops. So if one of your neighbors is hogging all the water from the pipes, you'll notice. Eastlink has previously said this will never be an issue on PEI. However, when it comes to cable internet, it's always a concern.

With Fibre, distance is less of an issue and can carry a faster service then Coax, but that's irrelevant unless your getting into super faster services (faster then what's offered above).

Fibre is smaller in diameter and distance is less an issue.