Worldline is coming off its best year ever. Record setting by every measure, we had such a great year, we’re going to have to work like maniacs to have a better 2015.

And that is precisely what we are going to do.

Over the past few years we’ve been striving to establish what Worldline is all about and how we wish to portray ourselves and what we stand for. Represented by our Superhero Kids, like Fifi up there, Worldline continues to shake up Big Telco by offering fantastic services at great prices, combined with our industry leading customer care.

That said, disruptive as we are, we’re not the “little guy” anymore. We’ve also focused on continually expanding our network and improving our products and services, to the point where, right now, Big Telco is standing up and taking notice.

That’s why in 2015, it’s time to spread the word around. We’ve been primarily focusing on our own backyard with our marketing and promotion efforts, but we are a national carrier, one of the top in the country. We’re going to spend our time this year letting much of the rest of Canada know that when it comes to their Internet and Home phone services, they don’t have to just “take it” anymore. They have options. Major markets that we have essentially been letting be will now receive our full attention.

We’re going west. We’re going south. We’re going east and north as well. We’re doing this to provide more Canadian than ever the ability to save hundreds of dollars a year on their telecom bills with Worldline.

What we’re saying is, in 2015, our kids are getting serious.

So, thanks for 2014 everybody. We really appreciate all your help getting us to where we are today and look forward to improving our services and customer care over the next year to make Worldline an even better choice for Canadians in 2015 than it was last year.

It’s going to be great.

On June 9th we introduced our Superhero Summer Savings dealio, with the hopes it would jack up sales over what is usually a down time in the telecom industry. With everyone going on vacation over the 8-12 weeks of heat we (usually) get, our new customer counts remain steady, but slower than the rest of the year.

This summer however, things have gone a wee bit differently. June was a record month for sales for Worldline, by a lot. Despite missing the first week of the month before introducing our special, overall we added 25% more Unlimited High Speed Internet and Unlimited High Speed Internet and Home Phone Bundle customers for the month than we averaged over the first five months of the year.

In July, we really rocked it essentially doubling the usual number of customers. As in a 100% increase over our what was our old monthly average. What about August you ask? Only a week in and we’re on pace to top even that!

To say we’re happy about this is an understatement, but we shouldn’t be all that surprised really. All we did was finally give Canadians what they wanted; straightforward pricing. No added fees, no confusing add-ons to the monthly invoice. Basically it’s what you see is what you get with the first invoice looking just like the next one. Simple.

The only thing we feel bad about? We didn’t do it sooner.

So welcome to all our new Worldine customers. We work hard everyday to be your friendly, neighborhood ISP and our fair pricing policy is just the start.

The numbers are in and once again Netflix is changing the way Canadians get their entertainment Just under one third (32%) of English speaking Canadians are subscribers to the streaming video service, up a staggering 25% from just one year ago.

Media Technology Monitor (MTM) issued their latest 2014 survey last week here’s some of the highlights:

Netflix is also being used primarily to access TV content, with users spending just over half of their time watching TV content via the service. More than 80% of its subscribers (88%) access its content in a typical week.

Subscribers watch it, on average, more than 6 hours a week.

Nearly two thirds of Netflix users have had their subscription for more than a year, with 32% of users saying they have subscribed to the service for more than two years. The service also tends to encourage binge viewing, with 69% of subscribers indicating that they have watched three or more episodes of a TV show in a single sitting.

So – that’s a lot of viewing. And a LOT of bandwidth. Here’s some numbers on that. An Internet connection running at 5 Mbps will use 2.8 GB of data an hour according to Netflix. So the average Canadian, before doing anything else online, burns through 67 GB of data a month, which is way above what the Big Three cap their data at for their average plans. That means that Netflix, which is changing the way Canadians digest their video entertainment, is costing them a lot more that the low regular monthly fee they are charged. Unless, of course, they have Unlimited High Speed Internet.

Then, what happens if those folks have kids? Netflix is a huge bandwidth user. Games? Multiply that by a bunch. Today’s video games aren’t just an hour or two in length. They typically vary from dozens and sometimes hundreds of hours.

The Last of Us was a huge zombie thriller gaming hit from 2013. When in game mode, it’s main story takes about 15 hours to complete, meaning the average player would use 35 to 40 GB out of their monthly cap. For just that one game.

Unlimited Internet from Worldline isn’t just a great way to save on your monthly Internet bills. It’s also a great way to avoid those dreaded data cap monthly surprises that Canadians have had to suffer through for too many years.

And here’s the thing. It’s only going to get worse. The more our society is being driven forward by the Internet, through both entertainment and work, our data costs are going to continue to increase.

Most Canadians don’t know that have an option, but they really should.

Every year the CRTC issues an “us vs. them” report on the telecom industry. They averaged what Canadians are charged for their Internet compared to the rest of the world. How did we come out?

Well, some good, some bad, but what blew us away was, holy cow! Are a lot of Canadians paying too much for their Internet or what!

Here’s a quick summary: The CRTC Broadband report breaks the data down to four broadband Internet categories based on download speed.

• Level 1 –  3 Mbps or less
• Level 2 – 4 to 15 Mbps
• Level 3 – 16 to 40 Mbps
• Level 4 – over 40 Mbps.

On average Canadians in 2013 a saw in increase of broadband Internet prices of 29%, 8%, 5% and 4%, respectively. Why Level 1 prices increased so much is because so few providers even offer services at or below 3 Mbps. Worldline doesn’t. If someone qualifies below 6 Mbps we don’t sign them up simply because they will think their Internet sucks, and they’d be correct.

Internationally how did we do? The CRTC reports that Canadian broadband Internet service prices generally compare favourably with the other surveyed countries  – but it depends what service you have.

Lower-speed Level 1 and 2 broadband service were pretty good. However, in the case of the average higher-speed Level 3 and Level 4 baskets, Canadian prices are higher than those in the surveyed countries included in the study, with the exception of the U.S. – who are getting robbed even worse than we are:

How does Worldline compare?

We don’t offer Level 1, but our level 2 service isn’t $55.10 with a 20GB/month data cap. Our Level 2 DSL service is $29.95, and it’s unlimited. Our level 3 isn’t $68.60 with a 50Gb/month cap. It’s $39.95, and it’s also unlimited. Level 4 averages $86.46 with a 75Gb/month cap across Canada. Worldline’s 50 Mbps DSL is unlimited and is $59.95/month. That’s a $360/year savings not even including what these folks are getting dinged for their data.

And remember, those inflated prices are just the averages that have been brought down by providers like Worldline. Canadians are paying too much for their Internet, and they simply don’t have to.

That’s what Worldline is all about. Wish the CRTC would do a report on that!

We introduced “I’m in!”, our new cultural initiative, last month because we wanted to define exactly what we as a company are all about: providing awesome service at a fair price – like say, our Unlimited High Speed Internet starting at just $29.95/month – and treating our customers exactly how we want to be treated ourselves.

For us to go from a pretty great to a totally great company we need to collectively bump it up a notch. That’s what being “In” is all about. Working together to improve our customers’ experience each and every day to the point where Canadians will look nowhere else for their telecom services.

What we didn’t realize was the Worldline, NEWT and Fibernetics folks weren’t the only ones looking to be “In”…

Like this nice lady named Roxanne who commented on the “I’m In” blog post:

Submitted on 2014/07/08 at 2:21 pm

hi! I have been researching isp and voip companies since buying and learning how to use my first pc. As an “old schooler” with a 12yr old it has been quite the journey!

My son has been frustrated by my digging around websites, but how else to find out if your hard earned dollars are going to a company you respect? I am so disappointed in BELL, I joined up with a lovely offer 3yrs ago (about $45.00/mo.) and it has been a nightmare ever since. My contract expires July 31,2014, and that bill will be about $173.00!

Plus, I have to give 30 days notice-just so they can get their final bite of me I guess, and it will have gone up again in price, I am sure….So I was THRILLED to find your site and your blog and wish you all the best as you and your staff continue to bring HAPPINESS to your customers, and ultimately, it would be awesome, to the WHOLE WORLD! Well, we can all dream, right?

As soon as I can figure out how to best escape BELL’S CASHSUCKING EMBRACE, I am switching over to WORLDLINE for internet service, and kicking BELL’S T.V . , Telephone and Internet TO THE CURB!!….Wait up, Worldline, I’m on my way!!!…

So cool. And can I just say that “BELL’S CASHSUCKING EMBRACE” would be an excellent band name. Thanks Roxanne. We’ll hook you up.