Montreal: CIKTel Review (Internet Service Provider Review)

After years of Videotron high speed cable internet service, I decided to roll the dice and go with a relative unknown ISP company: CIKTel. It took me awhile, but I finally found out what CIK means: it's an acronym for "Customer Is King".




Part of the reason for the change, was being tired of getting gouged on our internet prices here in Canada. CIKTel's prices are very competitive and that's the major reason I took a chance on them. Why else would I risk going with CIKTel? Well, here are the list of reasons (after about two weeks of experience):

Pros

- Prices are lower, I got high speed internet and IP phone box for less than what I paid at Videotron
- Internet speeds are higher for the price (even though their speeds are "up to x Mb/s")
- Unlimited usage
- A modem was expected, but getting a basic wireless router and an Android powered media box was a nice surprise

Cons

- Question marks about quality of service from a smaller ISP
- Technical support is spotty at best. Depends on who you get; If you speak Mandarin (or know someone who can) it helps a lot too
- Hardware is very basic, and not well designed...But, for the price you cannot expect much

Setting Up my CIKTel Internet Connection

I've set up my wireless internet at home a few times by now with different routers and modems over the years. So I can say that I am fairly comfortable with the whole procedure. But, for some reason CIKTel's router just would not connect to the internet. Connecting a laptop to the modem directly would work, but not when their router was placed in between them.

CIKTel Technical Support...You Need Mandarin

After a couple of fruitless calls to their technical support, my Mandarin-speaking friend made a couple of more calls until one support guy told us to power everything off, wire everything together, and then power everything on at the same time (as opposed to connecting the router, after the modem was already powered on). I've never seen that kind of issue before, but it solved the problem.

Internet Quality

I've heard that using these smaller ISPs could mean an internet connection that is spotty, but so far so good. I haven't had any severe time out issues. Although I have had to reset my router a couple of times already. I've actually found it to be faster at times too than my more expensive Videotron hookup. But, not everyone may be so lucky, at least from some of the reviews I've read online.

CIKTel Conclusion

If you are willing to take a chance and put up with some possible hiccups during internet setup (and have some comfort level of how to set up a wireless network), then I can recommend CIKTel. The relatively low cost, unlimited bandwidth and putting up with the occasional router reset made it worth the effort to change ISP.

2017 Update: I've moved around Montreal a couple of times since, and used their internet service each time, and I'm satisfied with it. Unlimited bandwidth is a big factor, and it's reliable enough for my needs.