Best Value Internet in Montreal [+ a referral code to save $100!]

If you’re here just for a quick referral code to save on Fizz Home Internet OR Mobile, here is Mr. Thrifty’s code: 9RDDQ. The amount of the referral bonus varies. It’s currently $100 for each party (for a limited time). Visit Fizz.ca.

And now, onto the research…

Researching the best value Internet in Montreal

Mr. Thrifty recently opened a branch office in Montreal and was tasked with finding the best-value Internet service provider in Montreal. It was hard to find unbiased reviews, as the top Google search results were coming from automated comparison sites that are driven by affiliate commissions [completely unlike Mr. Thrifty, of course].

Mr. Thrifty’s main decision criteria were speed, reliability and price. In other words, value.

If you have similar criteria, please read on for the results of Mr. Thrifty’s research on the best value Internet in Montreal and his experience in selecting and installing his chosen service.

It’s worth keeping in mind that there are only two networks that cover the entire city of Montreal: Bell and Videotron. All other ISPs rely on one or the other network, which means that they are reselling Bell’s or Videoton’s network. This can have an impact on your service if you encounter an issue with your Internet connection that lies with the network itself.

Mr. Thrifty finds the Reddit forums a fairly good place to start with this sort of research. Although they tend to go off on tangents and may be dated, spending an hour reviewing related threads brought up some useful considerations and companies that would otherwise have been under the radar. Mr. Thrifty is saving you this time by drawing up a short list, based on reviewing Reddit:

eBox
Fizz (Videotron)
Videotron
Bell
TekSavvy
Virgin

And the winner is…

So which company did Mr. Thrifty choose as the best value Internet in Montreal?

Fizz

Why?

Competitive pricing
No long-term contracts
Flexibility to upgrade/downgrade plans
Wi-Fi modem-router and its delivery/installation included
Unlimited monthly usage

Yes, Fizz customer service can be an issue

The major downside of Fizz is that there’s no telephone number to reach their customer service. Considering how rarely he’s had to contact his existing ISP, it didn’t seem worth the extra $10+ tax to upgrade to Videotron directly. It’s only an upgrade in the customer service aspect; all other features of the Internet plan remain the same. In fact, from a contractual basis, Fizz is better because they don’t lock you into a contract.

This lack of customer service contact already proved to be a barrier in his customer journey, in 2 aspects:

There was a significant hiccup in entering Mr. Thrifty’s Montreal address into Fizz’s automated address validation system. Basically, his new address wasn’t recognized. As mentioned above, Fizz offers no customer service phone number, but they do have a chat support function. Reaching their reps by chat could not resolve this issue. The first time, the chat support rep could not solve the problem right away and took Mr. Thrifty’s details to respond later. That never happened. He tried once again to outreach by chat, which led to another failure to resolve the issue. Normally that would have been it and he would have moved onto other service providers, were it not for the fact that Fizz is part of Videotron. Mr. Thrifty contacted Videotron tech support under the guise of opening an account, conjecturing that their back-end systems are shared. And, in short order, the superior Videotron customer service phone rep resolved the address issue. Then, armed with the knowledge of how to properly enter his Montreal address into the Fizz/Videotron verification system, Mr. Thrifty headed back to the Fizz site and was successful.
The entire Fizz website was down completely (“under maintenance”) for about 24 hours during his research phase. Lord knows how often this may occur in future. Fingers crossed that this was an isolated incident.

The Fizz Home Internet installation experience

Having validated his Montreal address and confirmed that Fizz Home Internet service is offered there, Mr. Thrifty scheduled the installation appointment. On the installation date, the Fizz installation technician arrived punctually and went straight to work (setting up the modem/router, connecting cables, and testing the speed). The total time required was about 30 minutes, longer than anticipated. The technician was efficient and polite. Mr. Thrifty rates the installation experience as 5 stars.

There’s also an option for self-installation but it wasn’t any cheaper in Mr. Thrifty’s case.

Post installation, there are some setup tasks to accomplish before your Fizz Internet is ready for use.

For those interested in reading about the Fizz Home Internet installation process, Mr. Thrifty has reproduced the handy installation and setup instructions below (click on image to enlarge).

Fizz Home Internet - Best Value in Montreal - Installation Instructions — Fizz Home Internet – Modem/Router Installation Instructions

The Upshot – Fizz is Fab

Writing this in November 2022, after more than a year of experience, Mr. Thrifty is thrilled with the speed and reliability of his Fizz Home Internet service, and can recommend it to his readers.

Save money through the Fizz referral program

Delivering even greater value, Fizz offers a referral program under which both the referrer and the referee receive a credit against future bills. The usual amount of the referral bonus is $25 for both the Fizz member and the person they invite, but this amount can vary based on the activation date. At the moment, for a limited time only, the amount of the referral bonus for each party is $100. If you’d like to benefit from a Fizz referral code (and help Mr. Thrifty out) please use his code: 9RDDQ.

Click here for the Fizz Home Internet site 👉

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