[*] Shaw does not have QOS

[John Lange]

I spent some considerable time today on the phone with a Shaw business
tech who was very helpful.

We've had some problems with "choppy" call quality at a certain site and
as a result we tried the Shaw QOS. It had no effect.

I figured it was because we weren't flagging the packets correctly so I
decided to do the homework and get things setup correctly.

As it turns out, Shaw does NOT have what anyone in the VOIP world would
consider QOS.

Shaw QOS is strictly the monitoring of the modem's signal-to-noise
ratios and other docsis reporting to ensure a level of "Quality of
Service".

It absolutely does NOT involve any traffic shaping or prioritizing of
packets of any kind.

I pressed him hard on this to make sure the facts were accurate. I asked
"are you certain you got an authoritative answer on this from someone
who knows what they are talking about?". Response: "Yes, I asked _the_
authority for this at Shaw in Calgary." (not a word-for-word quote)

Generally I find the use of the term QOS in this manner as deceptive. I
wouldn't have any great problem with it if they made the information on
what it means available. However, I think Shaw takes it too far.

Quote from their web site: 

"Shaw is now able to offer its High Speed Internet customers the
opportunity to improve the quality of Internet telephony services
offered by third party providers. For an additional $10 per month Shaw
will provide a quality of service (QoS) feature that will enhance these
services when used over the Shaw High Speed Internet network. Without
this service customers may encounter quality of service issues with
their voice over Internet service."

That statement is VERY deceptive.

Nothing Shaw does for QOS has any impact on "the quality of Internet
telephony services" in comparison to internet services in general.
Furthermore, assuming your modem was working properly to start with,
Shaw QOS would do nothing at all. If your modem isn't working properly
then that should be fixed regardless if you have QOS or not.

At least now we know.

On the positive side; the service was excellent. I am now working with
the techs to figure out what the real problem is at that location
(network debugging etc) which is more than I expected they would do. I
guess having a business account does have some advantages.

John