No Shaw Service in USA
Just brought our RV to Prince Edward Island for the summer season,Hooked up the Shaw Satelite nothing called and found that starting June 1st need a second account that will cost 50% of the package yo...
Forum Discussion
I am just in the process of switching from Bell to Shaw, primarily because of the "snow birding" issue with Bell. Have been talking to the local "experts" and this is their take on what's going on with Shaw.
Shaw has been quietly and happily providing sat TV to Cdns south of the border for many years, while Bell has been unwillingly providing it, and has been quite firm in cutting people off who were found to be using it in the US. The different attitudes were based on business/legal arrangements the two companies had with their (US) equipment suppliers...Bell's apparently much more restrictive and hence their much more rigorous enforcement of their policies.
Where the CRTC, US equivalent and various other gov't agencies come in is poaching customers across the line. IE, US customers subscribing to Cdn Sat TV and vice versa. This IS verboten both ways. IMHO, this does not apply to most RV'ers since we subscribe to a native provider in our home country and pay to receive a signal that we should be able to use wherever it can be received.
Bell's problem with this was solved with the launch of their new sat last year since it has a much reduced footprint (allowed by current sat technology) and therefore, for them, the problem largely goes away.
Lately, Shaw has been "promoting" the fact that they can provide signal to Cdns all the way to Mexico, probably to scoop up the last of the Bell snowbirds that need a new solution. Apparently, there has been some pushback from south of the border and Shaw seems to be in "backpedal" mode and now sort of strangely, and certainly not consistently, saying they will no longer provide service in the US.
I'm not sure what this will eventually mean in real terms. Could be, they'll go the Bell route and not support us while down south, possibly cut-off service if they find out etc. At very least, they seem to be modifying their "home away from home" and other similar programs. That said, their original two sats that have been providing the service are going to be around for at least a few more years and (according to Shaw) will continue to do what they have been doing. So far as I know, there is no way they can change the footprint of these sats. "Additional programming" will be loaded on the new sat when it comes online whatever that means.
I read from all this that, at least for the next while, most normal programming from Shaw will be available wherever the sat footprint allows, including the normal snowbird RV hangouts. Just to be on the safe side, I'd disable call-id if I were calling for help from Florida in the future.
FWIW.
cheers,
tfw
Shaw has been quietly and happily providing sat TV to Cdns south of the border for many years, while Bell has been unwillingly providing it, and has been quite firm in cutting people off who were found to be using it in the US. The different attitudes were based on business/legal arrangements the two companies had with their (US) equipment suppliers...Bell's apparently much more restrictive and hence their much more rigorous enforcement of their policies.
Where the CRTC, US equivalent and various other gov't agencies come in is poaching customers across the line. IE, US customers subscribing to Cdn Sat TV and vice versa. This IS verboten both ways. IMHO, this does not apply to most RV'ers since we subscribe to a native provider in our home country and pay to receive a signal that we should be able to use wherever it can be received.
Bell's problem with this was solved with the launch of their new sat last year since it has a much reduced footprint (allowed by current sat technology) and therefore, for them, the problem largely goes away.
Lately, Shaw has been "promoting" the fact that they can provide signal to Cdns all the way to Mexico, probably to scoop up the last of the Bell snowbirds that need a new solution. Apparently, there has been some pushback from south of the border and Shaw seems to be in "backpedal" mode and now sort of strangely, and certainly not consistently, saying they will no longer provide service in the US.
I'm not sure what this will eventually mean in real terms. Could be, they'll go the Bell route and not support us while down south, possibly cut-off service if they find out etc. At very least, they seem to be modifying their "home away from home" and other similar programs. That said, their original two sats that have been providing the service are going to be around for at least a few more years and (according to Shaw) will continue to do what they have been doing. So far as I know, there is no way they can change the footprint of these sats. "Additional programming" will be loaded on the new sat when it comes online whatever that means.
I read from all this that, at least for the next while, most normal programming from Shaw will be available wherever the sat footprint allows, including the normal snowbird RV hangouts. Just to be on the safe side, I'd disable call-id if I were calling for help from Florida in the future.
FWIW.
cheers,
tfw
