I've looked at the smaller ISPs in my area and they're terrible as far as pricing goes. Both the "major" options are still using Rogers' last-mile infrastructure, they offer poorer customer service (because of the previous point), charge the same or more money for the same level of service and offer no real incentive to switch. Having talked to some techs at TekSavvy, none of the smaller ISPs can offer anything interesting like synchronous speeds over coax/DOCSIS because they have little/no control over how the last-mile infrastructure is run. For that same reason they can't offer anything faster than 1G down either. It all feels like smoke and mirrors, and the CRTC seems to have a vested interest in keeping internet prices sky-high.

Yeah the last mile stuff is still owned by the majors, but at least the choice exists.

As much as Canadian telecom seems to own the CRTC it isn’t nearly as consumer unfriendly as when I lived in the US.

I had an apartment in downtown Seattle which had 2 choices for internet. Many of my friends were quite impressed since most addresses are only served by one ISP.

How is your internet provisioned? Is the no-name ISP building their own infrastructure or are they using the network of a larger one?

In Canada the infrastructure owners are required to give access to small providers at a regulated price.

So my internet is provided by Lightspeed on Shaw cable.

I use a local provider in NYC, and I used one in Seattle. I think both of them had some kind of point to point connection on the roof.

i signed up with one of the small ISPs in rural Canada. month after, they were bought by Rogers... :-(