It really depends...
You have to consider the speeds you want and the price you want to pay.
Speeds - How fast do you want it to go?
You have to keep in mind that the speeds advertised are always "up to" so many megabits per second (mbps). The higher the better. This is especially important when you share the internet on a home network through a wireless router. You may experience connection issues through your wireless network if the speed you subscribe to is not fast enough.
Price - What are you willing to pay?
You can go for some independent internet service providers but they don't give you the level of support you need, when you need it. With bigger providers like Sympatico and Rogers, you can pretty much bank on the fact that you can get in touch with them when you have a problem. However, it goes back to the issue of what is supported and that depends on what you pay for, as mentioned in previous posts.
I had Sympatico for about 2 years and recently the speeds just dropped on me so I switched to Rogers hi-speed internet. It's been working great since. I hope it stays that way. You can actually check the speed of your internet by going to
http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest It's a free test but you are limited to the number of tests you do per month. Another site you can visit is
http://www.toast.net and click on the Internet Speed Test hyperlink on the top left corner of the page.
My friend recently got Sympatico installed too and cancelled because they could not get it to work with proper speeds 2 weeks after it had been installed. He just changed to Rogers as well. I'll have to see how things go there.
Oh, one final food for thought. You should also consider if there is a download limit. Some friends of mine download a lot of items from the internet and limits can cause you great pains in the pocketbook if you exceed them. Sympatico does not advertise a limit however I think they use the words "responsible usage". Rogers has a download limit depending on the price you pay. The highest speed package they offer provides a 100 gigabyte download limit per month which is pretty substantial unless you have a network of individuals consistently downloading many items. This point is especially important to note if you are going with an independent who may charge for the additional bandwidth usage. I guess that is how they make their money.
I hope this helps. Happy surfing.