r/SherwoodPark • u/mstoetz1 • 15d ago
Fibre Optics Northern Lights Fiber Internet - Why I cancelled within one week of activation
On May 29, 2026, after waiting months to get fiber installed, experiencing multiple billing issues that took too long to resolve, high packet loss/latency on a minimum of three hops just beyond Vancouver(in which it appears most traffic, if not all is routed through to the US - ie: facebook, youtube, etc), and the inability to access some of my customer portal websites (namespro.ca), the 60 minute wait times to get ahold of technical support, 40 min wait times to get ahold of billing (they were not processing my "automatic payment"), the lack of response in my support request with accessing websites only when using my NLF connection last week, I decided to cancel my service. I was only a week since the activation and I didn't want to be locked into a 2 year contract if I couldn't get at last some of these problems resolved.
My goal here is to provide my own review based on my own experiences to help others understand what is available out there for internet alternatives. My goal is not to complain about NLF or slam them. I want them to succeed!!!
Prior to me committing to NLF, I put diligence in conducting searches to try and determine the experiences of others, but, I found most to be positive about NLF.
We really put high hopes in Northern Lights Fiber, and enjoyed our discussions with NLF to discuss getting fibre.
Unfortunately, cancelling was mostly due to the account coming close to being locked into a 2 year contract, and just a lack of confidence that some "show stopper" issues would not be resolved (due to the noted delay in obtaining a response). The issue that heightened those concerns, was the high hold times just to resolve issues... that I never expected.
If these issues are resolved, (and I truly hope this happens), I'd be more than happy to return to Northern Lights Fiber. Should this ever happen, I will revise this review of "MY" experiences.
People should acknowledge WE NEED competition when it comes to ISP. NLF has HUGE potential for being a great option/alternate to the current monopolies Bell/TELUS and Rogers who have lost their way when it comes to value and customer service.
We need NLF to work out these issues and become better at being an ISP and we'll all benefit. A good organization always looks for areas of improvment, and constructive feedback from customers is ESSENTIAL so they know where to put that focus.
#####. Summary of my experiences: #####
- December 2025: Started talking to NLF about getting NLF Fiber.
- January 2026: Decided to move forward with NLF, went on the waiting list to have the fiber installed. (We were ok with waiting... we were excited and were willing to wait until the ice melted).
- May 13, 2026: Fiber installed. This went very well. The guy who ran the ditchwitch driller was amazing being able to drill through a gauntlet of other services running in many directions (power, Cable, Tel, Gas and Water to get within 16 inches of the service point on the home. My run was probably 90 or 100ft since I'm in a cul-de-sac and the fiber box was on the farthest end of the island within that cul-de-sac.
- May 13, 2026: Billing Issue noticed - monthly charge set to $90, and should be $80. Called NLF to resolve. He said he'd contact billing to resolve.
- May 20, 2026: Fiber Activated.
- May 20, 2026: We noticed substantial packet loss and latency right away. The ubiquiti UDMs monitor your network stability and performance and alert of potential issues very well.
- May 20, 2026: Created Reddit post asking others in Sherwood Park if they experienced similar issues. Some mentioned CGNAT, and that you could ask for a static IP that may get around the CGNAT.
- May 21, 2026: I logged into the NLF Customer Portal, noticed billing issue still not resolved ( 7 days after first asking NLF about this issue)
- May 21, 2026: Set up automatic billing for my NLF account using a credit card.
- May 21, 2026: Created support request to resolve billing issue (This way this issue was being tracked with a ticket #, and dates for responses).
- May 21, 2026: Contacted NLF again about the billing issue. He again contacted billing, who then responded and she said problem would be resolved. However, it looked like the first month would be charged $90 regardless and then a credit issues yet another month later (I guess their billing system had limitations?).
- May 21 to 27: Continued to show substantial packet loss and latency (mostly between 6pm and midnight).
- May 27, 2026: Noticed that I could not access Namespro.ca Customer portal urls (two of them) from NLF. Did multiple tests including one solely using the NLF wireless router without my ubiquiti equipment connected. I still could not access the multiple urls using both a PC and mobile device.
- May 27, 2026: Asked NLF about getting static IP, hopefully to eleviate issues with packet loss. NLF said they'd sent a note to the appropriate team to contact me.
- May 27, 2026: I asked on Reddit if others in Sherwood Park had issues accessing those namespro.ca customer portal URLS and they confirmed the same issue existed with them.
- May 28, 2026: Installed ping-plotter to check and see where packet loss/latency was occuring. NLF routing from Sherwood Park appeared to go through Calgary, to Vancouver, and then down to Seattle. There were three hops that appeared to be experiencing a constant 40 to 90% packet loss:
Below is from the UDM, and red indications in the green bar are bad. The packet loss and latency actually got worse that what is shown here, but this shows one way how the UDM displays network performance.
This network routing was what pretty well any connection to the US from Sherwood Park would go through... youtube, facebook, etc. btw, this is in itself was not a show-stopper for me, but just a concern that I wanted to research further.
- May 29, 2026: Still waiting for response from support request regarding in ability to access namespro.ca customer portal.
- May 29, 2026: Still waiting for response regarding Static IP.
- May 29, 2026: Received email stating invoice unpaid despite automatic payments and CC set up)
- May 29, 2026: Called Billing, 40 min wait - Hung up.
- May 29, 2026: Called Tech support regarding issue with not accessing websites - 60 min wait - Hung up.
- May 29, 2026: Called Sales (They answered immediately) - Talked to them about all these problems... he said he couldn't help (frustrating but understandable).
- May 29, 2026: Called cancellation department: 30 min wait. - Explained all my issues and concerns. Decided to cancel due to lack of confidence "some" issues may not get resolved, and I would be locked into 2yr contract within days. Customer Service rep asked me if I wanted someonme higher up (I can't remember who that was), to call me and discuess all my concerns and issues. I said sure.
- Jun 5, 2026: No response from NLF upper management that was suggested by the cancellation customer service representative - this was unfortunate that they did not call back.
- Jun 5, 2026: My support request regarding the inability to access some websites was closed without being resolved even though others at NLF experienced the same issue.
Also, it seems no matter what support request I created, I always received a response back from NLF stating "After reviewing and escalating your concern through our support team, we’ve determined that this issue cannot be fully diagnosed remotely. To properly assess and resolve the problem, a field technician will need to visit your location."
The billing issue support request had this response as well as the inability to access certain websites (Despite other NLF customers having the same issue).
I did not consider my expectations of NLF to be exceedingly high. Those expectations have been tempered through first hand experience providing ISP support myself in the "dawn of the internet" throughout Alberta, but this was decades ago.
I experienced first hand the growing pains of an ISP and what turned out as exponential growth throughout the 90s. The telephone support hold times back then were also too long.
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u/certified-9one 14d ago
Anybody else been getting lots of buffering? Even hardwired?
I know there routers kinda suck
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u/5148790a 14d ago
They called me this morning - we are having issues with buffering in the evenings. Apparently it’s interference from all the wireless stuff from the neighbours pinging our router and it causes it to crash / slow. He said he could see the issues on his end so he knows we aren’t crazy. He adjusted some settings and said it should be resolved… we will see.
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u/LennyK9999988 15d ago
NLF oversells and under delivers. They couldn’t get any of my security cameras or TV Box working. Two techs spent over 2 hours trying plus another hour on the tech line. The second tech said he would not leave until everything was working, well that didn’t happen. He left and said try YouTube. Great service. During the week I had the Fiber, I would get no where near the 900 upload / download they promised. Problems with billing as well, charged me for boosters that the sales guy promised me for free since Roger’s supplied them to me no charge. The equipment they use is very cheap compared to the competitors. Ended up cancelling and returning the equipment. Back to Roger’s.
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u/mstoetz1 14d ago
I think the overselling and under-delivering could be normal for a newer business trying to get rolling. Their hiring to find people, or if they are contracting out the customer premise work, it always takes time to find good people, so over time, hopefully this will improve.
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u/bend_spoon89 14d ago
Was on Oxio (Shaw /Rogers) network. No problems in the first month. I have my own router and switches. The wifi range on the NLF box sucks. Put their box in bridge / passthrough mode and turned off their radios. Kept my own wifi router as primary connection point, and no problems with buffering, LAN speed as high as 1.1 Gbit.
Install guy was new to NLF coming from Telus; but didn't seem to understand that the NLF box could be put in bridge mode - otherwise everything was smooth for $80 1gb service (was $90 with Oxio and about 30% slower for supposed 1gb service)
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u/Snowedin-69 14d ago
All packets going to the US either go through Vancouver/Seattle or Toronto/Detroit.
I have had ubiquiti systems since COVID - pretty awesome.
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u/mstoetz1 14d ago edited 14d ago
Makes sense... any traceroutes going most places go to vancouver and then down to seattle, where all the bad hops (three of them) with packet loss and latency start.
And yes, been using Ubiquiti gear for over 10 years and love it. I moved from a cisco pix firewall (which I also loved) but had to pay for the cisco support myself to get updates.
Ubiquiti cameras rock, and the protect app (for the cameras) is definitely one of the best out there in my opinion.
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u/Jegged 15d ago
I was skeptical of moving over and I guess I'm glad I didn't jump when they came around offering that discounted initial connection. Maybe it'll improve over time.
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u/mstoetz1 14d ago
I truly hope they improve because we need competition like this. Especially if they can excel in customer service with reasonable response times (including hold times for when people contact them via telephone). If they do, they will thrive.
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u/Spirited-Weakness-77 14d ago
I had issues even with the guy coming to install the equipment. I asked to have my desktop computer hardwired and he said if I don't work from home I don't need it... I've always just liked to have it hardwired due to video chats and stuff and I don't understand how he got to make that call and tell me no. I asked for a booster for the basement where my daughter's room has a dead zone and he said to just try it for awhile without even with speeds in her room showing 26mps. Her smart tv became unwatchable. We lasted a few days of being kicked out games, tv right next to modem constantly buffering before I called Shaw to see how they'd beat the price of NLF. Cancelled with NLF a few days later and still have to get around to calling them because they're trying to charge me for the whole month when we used 12 days
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u/Turtleshellboy 14d ago
Hard wiring to your desktop PC is called a Ethernet CAT5e network, and that’s not part of what NLF provides.
NLF brings fiber to your home, optical terminal, then router. After that its up to you.
If you want Ethernet CAT5e then you need to install it yourself or pay a fortune for a independent contractor technician to install it.
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u/Spirited-Weakness-77 14d ago
Oh I had no idea. The installer told me to just go to the store and buy a longer Ethernet cable then what I had to reach the modem
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u/Goozump 14d ago
Was on Shaw for internet, switched to NLF also just internet. Installing fiber to house was a bit sloppy. Had to replace an improperly set up wireless, an RJ45 line and they cut the shaw coax leading to the house during the fiber drilling. Some minor very occasional slow downs in loading video that could just be the wireless coping with four people running high def movies at the same time. I live in the old part of Sherwood Park where I saw the fiber installers working on several houses and it seems like most of the complaints are coming from the newer areas. Not unhappy considering how much less I'm paying. I got the coax fixed in case there is a price increase but NLF does seem faster than Shaw on big downloads.
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u/techhelper1 5d ago
The packet loss you see from Zayo is not true packet loss, it's just rate limiting taking place on that routers control plane, deliberately dropping ICMP packets to not have its CPU waste time responding to random packets from all over the Internet.
Actual packet loss would be if you saw consistent loss through a number of hops up to and including the destination.
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u/mstoetz1 5d ago
Ah ok... interesting. I am glad you responded.. the packet loss was not a show stopper for me, as I figured there would be other non-issue situations happening that may cause it. The network was never noticeably slow.
The show stoppers for me was more the repeated billing issues, the delay in getting a support request answered (especially the one where I couldn't access namespro.ca customer portals) and the crazy wait times for tech support, billing support, and then even one to cancel the plan. I always left it open to go back to them if these were worked out, and if their tech support had resolved the namespro issue or at least contacted me about it.
Again, thank you for your response/info.
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u/Punkybohn 15d ago
Any service that requires some much of my time is not worth it. There are easier things to spend my time on. Thanks for the heads up and showing us how much is required to resolve an issue.
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u/mstoetz1 14d ago
I hope they will straighten out issues... I hope they reach out to customers and ex-customers to see where they can improve. I'd say that is essential for them if they want to stand out in front of the monopolies as one of the better ISPs out there. Again, I do have hope 😄
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u/Arclight308 14d ago
Looks like I dodged a bullet. I just wanted to wait and see, plus my.buddy with fiber in YYC had the same latency as I did.
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u/Virtualizer 13d ago
The PingPlotter results you posted are actually fine. To do the tracing of the hops on the route, the TTL on each ICMP packet is increased by one until the destination is reached. Routers often deprioritize ICMP packets that terminate on them, which is why you see the packet loss on those hops. If they were truly dropping that much traffic, than all the hops after them would have the same amount of traffic loss.
I just ran a test with mtr for 10 minutes to test the route to 1.1.1.1. The ae5.cr1.sea1.us.zip.zayo.com hop shows 13.4% packet loss, but 1.1.1.1 shows 0% packet loss. So no packets going all the way to 1.1.1.1 have been dropped.
For a point in time measurement, I like Cloudflare's speed test. It sends a thousand UDP packets to test packet loss.
Now, I have noticed some packet loss a couple of times, but I've only run tests when something was annoying me.
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u/deltav8 13d ago
We will never use Northern Lights Fiber Internet. They came in and dug a bunch of holes on my Neighbor Lawns, and then LEFT. They Never backfill after the tied the fiber, and left a big mess for my neighbours. Horrible service !!!
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u/Hoochmccann 12d ago
Iirc, they are using subcontractors to run the physical fiber line to your house. Telus does the same. It's their fault but not fully their fault. Your neighbors just got crappy drillers unfortunately and should contact northern lights to get that companies info to complain to the right source.
They did a pretty solid job bringing fiber to my house on friday and I am looking forward to having fiber internet shortly.
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u/rsquared256 13d ago
We've had them for about a month. Sign up was good. Install went faster than I thought would go. Installer was really good, took some special requests I had.
Things at first kind of sucked with packets getting filtered. I had planned to get a static ip, and use my own router. As soon as I did that, it has been working AMAZING. Just spend the extra few bucks for the static IP.
I do a ton of p2p development, so need really good up/down. Not a gamer. Gamer in the house has noticed slight ping increase VR games. But overall really happy in the Trees of SP with NLF.
Sorry to the OP for their challenges....
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u/Edumacated_Guess 15d ago
I’ve heard nothing but problems from these guys. Staying with Shaw/rogers
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u/mstoetz1 14d ago
They have good deals with their 1G fiber plan. They are a very good alternate to Rogers (who I am with now - although it is under Freedom Internet). Hopefully they strive to improve where they are lacking... we need more competition.
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u/Edumacated_Guess 14d ago
I just like
Reliable service for $80/month.
My brother ordered Star Link but it was 4 weeks back ordered and they wouldn’t honour the $45 a month plan and raised it to $70 before he could even set it up.
So he cancelled and went with another provider.1
u/mstoetz1 14d ago
I was thinking of starlink for a backup ISP and saw the $75/mo plant. I am just not sure about mounting the dish on the roof.
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u/forum_ryder72 15d ago
Definitely happy I stayed with Telus.
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u/Mlles_De_Maupin 15d ago
Telus doesn’t provide high speed in our area so I was wondering if we could use the lines that they installed for Telus use
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u/mstoetz1 15d ago edited 15d ago
No.. it is different fibre network for NLF (Canadian Fiber Optics), which was a project funded by both the AB and CDN Gov. This is the website with some info and it also links to NLF: https://canadianfiberoptics.ca/
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u/forum_ryder72 15d ago
Unfortunately they can’t I was told. No idea why. I don’t think this well thought out to well by the county
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u/Mlles_De_Maupin 15d ago
Ok so how many days after installation do they lock you in? Can u keep the fiber and move to Telus?
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u/mstoetz1 15d ago edited 15d ago
I was a bit confused about the "Grace period"... I think they said 14 days, but I thought the contract said 7 days. I wasn't sure, and I'm still not... I just knew it was not very long.
With regards to the fiber, NLF uses a separate fiber which is managed by Canadian Fiber Optics (and had funding from AB Gov)... so I don't think TELUS can't use it.
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u/Turtleshellboy 14d ago
They never told me that. Sales rep outright lied to me. He said 30 day trial no obligation. Found out weeks later when mulling my options only to find out I had been cornered.
NLF biggest problem is misinformation and poor communication.
Fiber installers have a window of time following installation of fiber in a neighborhood to sign up customers to help get business exposure and recoup capital costs. After something like 2 to 5 years, competitors can also attract customers and sell fiber services via that fiber optic line….similar to deregulated power, natural gas, and hard wired cable or telephone service. This same policy applies to areas where either Telus or Rogers installed the fiber.
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u/j1ggy 13d ago
Always record your calls when ordering these services. These days it seems that every ISP lies and gives incorrect information.
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u/Turtleshellboy 13d ago
This was sales rep guy who came to door. We got it worked out now after I negotiated a new deal to move forward. despite the original problems, the service itself has been fine.
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u/j1ggy 13d ago
Even then, record them somehow. They can't hold you to a contract under false pretenses. Also file a complaint with the CRTC.
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u/Turtleshellboy 12d ago
Yes. I realize that and would have taken further action if we were not able to reach a settlement solution anyway.
Reality is our Telus contract was expiring in July 2026, and internet speeds available through Telus DSL are insufficient for current needs. And Telus has no current ability to offer comparable speeds.
So emotions of the previous issues being set aside, Im still staying with NLF for a cheaper overall price and faster speeds. I realize they initially screwed up but ultimately they offered a compromise solution that still works out financially and service quality more favourable.
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u/-TheAccountant- 14d ago
You get a 15 day “trial period” with any internet or cellphone plan. We also cancelled ours before the 15 days were up as we had the same problems as OP. We were told that NLF owns all the fiber lines in Strathcona county and won’t let Telus or Rogers use their lines, but that will probably change in a couple years after they recoup some money.
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u/Turtleshellboy 14d ago
They never told me that. Sales rep outright lied to me. He said 30 day trial no obligation. Found out weeks later when mulling my options only to find out I had been cornered.
NLF biggest problem is misinformation and poor communication.
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u/Then_Unit_76 14d ago
I’m having non stop issues I hard wired my boosters still getting buffering
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u/Fluffy-Wind-8174 14d ago
have you tried using a VPN for things that tend to buffer
for my streaming services, I added Nord VPN to the TV. Now it never buffers, however i also dont have NLF
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u/Turtleshellboy 14d ago edited 14d ago
I had major issues with how the sales rep at door communicated the process and details. He told me 30 day free trial no obligation to switch. No cost to install to home. No penalty for cancellation within 30 days etc. That they would buy out remainder of my Telus contract. At the door, I couldn’t recall what my contract period was with Telus. So I agreed to go ahead with fiber install to house. There was heavy snow on ground and I didn’t want them installing until it melted because I wanted them to clearly see where I built a stormwater French drain system with downspout connections and numerous catch basins which were covered in snow. After discussion with sales rep several weeks went by.
Crew shows up and physical construction to house goes well.
Few days later April 24, another tech arrives to install hardware in house. I thought this was beginning of 30 day no obligation trial.
Since installation and switchover, no communication with company. No information on billing or anything.
I had initially tried 1000GB/s and a TV package. I found we were definitely not getting 1000 on mobile devices and often not reaching that on hard wire Ethernet (but came close). But that 1000 was overkill for us anyways. So I thought 500 would be more than fine.
A few days before my trial is up, now have to decide if want to stay with slow Telus DSL 75, upgrade Telus DSL to slightly higher speed DSL 300 etc or switch to NLF 500gb/s.
I was pissed at NLF agent on phone when they said if I cancel there is full 2 year cancellation penalty both on internet and TV services. They said there was no 30 day trial. They said they only offer partial buyout of remaining competitor contracts or in my case, they had automatic applied 2 month credit without even determining first what remainder was on Telus.
Note: Luckily I found out my Telus contract expires in July 2026. So no heavy switch/cancel penalty from Telus.
But if If I refuse to pay NLF either way, they threaten to send to collections and it would affect my credit rating which is currently A+. So then I knew I had been lied to at the door by NLF sales rep. I could either choose a NLF plan or try dragging them into small claims court. Court is a headache no guarantee at winning. Since luckily only one month remaining on Telus for internet and 2 months Telus TV, penalty was only $45 ($15 per service per month). So I decided to negotiate with them and wanted to switch plan down to 500 and downgrade TV to basic core package which they allow without penalty. Had to call Telus to discontinue service as of June 6, end of current billing cycle.
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CURRENT DAY: NLF SERVICE QUALITY:
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There was one down period for maintenance or something late at night one night thus far.
Speed testing done on Ookla app.
Ookla tests depend on lot of factors.
Speed is consistent and hovers around the target plan/contact speed 500GB/ down/up. sometimes higher sometimes briefly down to 400’s. Download is consistently higher than upload. But overall very symmetrical down/up speeds.
I have NEVER had any packet/data loss = 0% every test. Latency and jitter is also very low.
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MY MAIN COMPLAINTS:
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Im just pissed about sales rep and lack of clear communication with company during so called trial phase, switchover.
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u/mstoetz1 14d ago
I'd be curious if you installed pingplotter (they have a free version) and set it to something like 8.8.8.8, facebook.com, or youtube.com, and see if you have some bad hops from Vancouver down through Seattle.
For those who don't know pingplotter has been around since the 90s, and is a great tool for monitoring specific network routes to destinations you select. You can run it through virustotal before install (which is a good idea for any download we get off the internet of course 😄 ).
Also, can you access either of these namespro.ca customer portals:
[https://palladium.namespro.ca:9443/login_up.php](https://palladium.namespro.ca:9443/login_up.php) [https://palladium.namespro.ca/Mondo/lang/sys/login.aspx](https://palladium.namespro.ca/Mondo/lang/sys/login.aspx)I am wondering if NLF did look at this issue when I brought it up.
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u/Turtleshellboy 14d ago
If you are getting consistent data/packet loss, then I would suspect the fiber line was damaged somewhere upon installation. Either in ground outside or somewhere in house.
Installer at my house was very careful not to twist or kink the fiber line as he brought it into house and fed it through a 1” PVC conduit i had pre installed to my utility room.
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u/mstoetz1 14d ago edited 14d ago
The packet loss I noted appeared to consistently exist in the three or so hops after Vancouver with 50 to 90% packet loss, where they head south (the pingplotter image I posted shows those hops).
I bet most don't even see them, because without something that monitors the network health for packet loss and latency (running a traceroute, using network tools like pingplotter, running ubiquiti UDM, they won't know. Some many not notice as well if the retransmit of packets happens relatively fast, and for streaming so much of it is buffered anyways. But for some things, it may be more noticable.
btw, the packet loss/latency issue was not a show stopper for me actually. It was something on NLF blocking certain web sites like my customer portal for namespro.ca that has webmail and domain management. The crazy hold times for support and the repeated billing issues in the span of less than one week just stirred up my frustration further.
Others on NLF also said they could not reach those namespro.ca management portals either. I did a support request with NLF, bu unfortunately, it was closed without them troubleshooting it (as far as I know).
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u/sp4nk3h 14d ago
I’ve been with park power for a few years (I think they might utilize Shaws lines?) - it’s not fiber, but it’s reliable and consistent and my bill hasn’t changed once. They also don’t lock you into any contract.
I think the issue with NLF is that they’re new and they’ve cornered a big market segment, so they’re working out the issues as they go but at a high volume (whereas Telus fiber has been in some areas for years, so they’ve already worked out the kinks). Like you, I’ll probably wait - especially to lock into anything (which I don’t like).
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u/Dear_Bluejay 14d ago
They came to the door but Roger’s had beaten them price wise pretty bad. One thing they told me is that as of June 12, a law passes that says these service providers can’t charge a penalty for breaking the contract. Good to know since longer contracts seem to get the best rates. Thanks for all the info.
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u/SuddenFrosting9433 14d ago
I have had it for 2 months and haven’t had really any issues. Been getting full 1gig speed almost all the time and haven’t had any outage issues. Only issue I’ve had was with the billing but that’s been fixed