Rogers rocket hub (internet, phones)

[lew]

I've used Rogers for many years here in Toronto for cable, internet, home phones and cell phones and have been satisfied with their service, but now I'm moving to the country in about 10 days and things are gonna change.

 

I was talking to Rogers today to see what's available up there.....15 miles north of Peterboro...... and he told me about something new that just came out recentely called a Rocket Hub. I plug this Hub into the wall, then plug my computer into it and it'll give me hi-speed internet comperable in speed to what I have now, plus I can plug my home phone into it and use my wireless phones around the house too.

 

It'll cost me $150 up front to buy this hub then $50 per month after that for hi-speed & phones. The price doesn't sound bad to me but just wondered if anybody is familiar with these things and do they actually work as well as he says, or is it just a salesmans pitch ??

 

Any thoughts ??

Edited February 17, 2010 by lew

[rhare]

I have a rogers rocket stick that I use for portable highspeed. I'm very happy with it, works great and is plenty fast enough. I assume that the hub would be similar technology.

 

sounds interesting forsure

[discophish]

Hi Lew. This is not a gimmick, it's actually a great piece of technology. I use the "stick" version of the Rogers product called the "Rocket Stick", essentially a usb stick for laptop/desktop connectivity. The hub allows you connect multiple devices to it, at lightning speed if you are able to connect to the 3G networks. The signals are borrowed from the Rogers cell phone networks, up to 7.2 megabits. If I have to bring work up to the cottage, now I can with the Rocket Stick. Before, I would have to stay in the city if I ended up working the weekends. Any area that the rogers cell networks cover, you will be covered to access the internet via your hub. My cottage is north of Parry Sound, and it's lightning fast, as if I were at home in Toronto.

 

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[Twocoda]

im not sure if its the same as what im on up here....i get my internet /phone and television all through some new fangle dangle system the wife got us set up on ...we now have little flyingsaucers attached to our tvs and modem and phoneline....apparently everything comes in from telephone line..

 

only complaint i have had is about once a month the HD channels freeze for about ten seconds...always at the most inappropriate time too....

 

bmts.com if you want to read on it ...

 

edit again ....the whole package for everything is ony 105 $ a month

Edited February 17, 2010 by Twocoda

[FSNmachine]

I just got one. They will give you a 15 day trial. Seems to work great and they are offering this deal to win people from Bell like myself. We added an unlimited long distance to the package and since I am a bell customer they gave me all the features I had with Bell like call display and answering service. The higher the Rogers signal you pick up the higher bandwidth you get. At my place the signal does fluctuate and so does my bandwidth but then it does that with most ISP's. The $50 dollar package only gets you about 3.5 GB per month and the cost goes up incramentally from there. I will likely use more and pay more but will still be cheaper than what I have now. I am a home office user and the guy on the phone asked some honest questions about our useage and was honest to say if you down load movies or are into gaming this may not be for you.

 

Its neat the way it uses a cell technology but emulates a home phone ie gives you a dialtone from the phone you plug into it.

 

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/internet-mobile/rockethub

[mbosh1980]

Lew, I think I'm just down the lake from you and the rogers rocket stick works pretty good...we never could get bell sympatico to work quite right and it is WAY better than dial up. But it is not as reliable/fast as what we get here in the gta, but like I said that is with the stick, not the hub. I would be interested in checking out the hub myself as we sometimes have more than one person with laptops wanting online at once.

Edited February 17, 2010 by mbosh1980

[FSNmachine]

I forgot to add I have tried it with 2 pc's and 2 laptops at once. One laptop was vpn'd into a customer office and the other was vpn'd to my company's intranet. Again your experience will vary with the signal strength in your area.

[lew]

Thanks fellas, it would seem everyone is in agreement that the hub will be OK for the internet so I guess I'll contact Rogers and set it up. I spose no matter what happens, it'll be far superior to Dial-Up

[Beans]

I spose no matter what happens, it'll be far superior to Dial-Up

 

Amen to that Lew...

 

Two tin cans with a length of string would be better than dial-up...

[Big Cliff]

Lew, I don't know if this is the same technology or not but we went with a VOIP system last year (not with Rogers) for our phones and regretted it from day one. In fact, we ended up having to change our phone number just so we could go back to a land line. We use Xplornet for our high speed internet, the package we have gives us unlimited up loads/down loads and a speed of 3.5 MBPS and costs us $59.00 a month. I have been very pleased with their service and support.

[lew]

Cliff, I just got back from the Rogers store where I picked up my Hub and hopefully it'll do the trick for me. It's $50 per month and as mentioned by FSNmachine it gives me 3+ GB which should be plenty for what I do on the puter. If I need more it's only about $10 per month extra and brings me up to 5 GB

 

It also gives me my home phones with call display, call waiting, voicemail yada yada.

 

I've talked to a few folks here thru PM's plus a couple friends and everyone seems happy with this set-up, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

 

Only strange thing though is it says right on the Rogers box that certain areas of Canada may need an external antenna to boost reception, but when I enquired about them they said their not available in Canada and have to be ordered from the States

 

They said it won't be required for the Peterboro area though.

[Big Cliff]

Because I send and receive a lot of big files on my computer, even 5 GB would be way too small for me, that might do me for a week so I really really appreciate the unlimited deal that I have. let me know how the phone thing works out for you though, If I was to combine my phone with my internet I'd be paying about $125.00 a month and my TV, even with a basic package adds about another $45.00 a month to that.

 

Good luck with it Lew and don't be a stranger, you know you always have a place to park, and make pit stops when you are over this way.