[CA] Internet costs to rise

[ironsight2000]

Surfing and downloading from the internet is about to get more expensive for many Canadians as internet companies Shaw and Primus have announced plans to impose new fees and caps on internet usage.

Over the past year, the CRTC, Canada's communication regulator, let Bell and Rogers start charging extra for customers who download a lot of data. The growing demand for live-streaming and online movies gobbles up huge chunks of bandwidth on the World Wide Web.

Primus and Shaw have said they will begin passing on higher fees to their customers beginning Feb. 1. Primus, for example, rents bandwidth on Bell's networks and said Bell is inflating the costs for everyone, including them.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2011/01/07/internet-expensive-surfing-canadians.html

[iamawesomewicked]

Like we aren't charged enough as it is... FFS...

I get 480kbps download and 64kbps upload for $60+ a month. That is borderline retarded.

[ironsight2000]

Bell is the main one pusing it. and the CRTC is approving it. and the MP's and could care less.

[Excelsis]

Welcome to Bhell! This is so backwards, with technology expanding so fast they shouldn't be imposing bandwidth caps now, very low caps at that. I'm with Bell and I have to pay an extra $10 so I can get an additional 80GB, making it 140GB. Yes, the normal bandwidth cap is 60GB, in 2011!

It's 75GB I believe for Fibe25 (25mbps), how crazy are they?

And let's not mention the overage fees. Want to use your internet for more than watching at 360p youtube videos and chatting on Facebook? Be ready to fork out $60 if you go over the limit.

3 years ago bandwidth caps was unheard of here. How low have we fallen.

[Ryoken]

Eastlink ftw.

No caps :)

Even though their 30mbit and 100mbit service is advertised with caps, at the moment there aren't any because they don't have a way to monitor usage lol.

[ironsight2000]

Eastlink ftw.

No caps :)

Even though their 30mbit and 100mbit service is advertised with caps, at the moment there aren't any because they don't have a way to monitor usage lol.

wont last for long as is wholesale of bell.

same with teksavvy is wholesale of bell all dsl in ontario is owned by bell technically

[iamawesomewicked]

wont last for long as is wholesale of bell.

same with teksavvy is wholesale of bell all dsl in ontario is owned by bell technically

Exactly. And they do have a way to monitor. Every ISP does.

[ironsight2000]

the monitoring hardware they use is very inaccurate as it counts drop packets also

[MR_Candyman]

the monitoring hardware they use is very inaccurate as it counts drop packets also

Doesn't matter. They'll still charge for them.

[+Warwagon MVC]

This is why we will all be speaking Japanese some day.

My parents have DSL and are capped at 10 gigs per month. The DSL provider also advertises that you can watch all the netflix movies you want. In that ad the 10 gig cap is never mentioned.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

It's such a shame that the bigger companies can call the shots. Right now, those big companies are Bell and Rogers. The smaller wholesale resellers like Primus and Teksavvy have no choice but to buckle under the pressure of Bell and Rogers. It's sad because the CRTC allows this. Fortunately, they're not all that bad. In fact, they've done some good for the little guys (see here and here). Personally though, it doesn't excuse the CRTC ruling that forced the wholesale resellers to enforce the bandwidth caps of whichever major ISP they were leasing from.

Up until 2004, Canada used to be among the top countries when it came to high speed Internet access and broadband penetration. Over the years, our broadband infrastructure gradually became stagnant and... never mind. I could go on and on but it won't change things. Instead, I leave you with this: '2011 Villain: Bandwidth Caps'

It's a good read.

[Kreuger]

It's a good read.

Completely agree with your post.

[hougtimo]

and the MP's and could care less.

WTAF?

Is that supposed to be "and the MP's could care less?"?

So they're doing something about it? Because obviously they care at least a little bit.

And you've a redundant apostrophe.

/David Mitchell

[Avistent]

I live in windsor ontario and i pay $50 a month for a 14mb line unlimited BW. I get it from Kelcom. They rent the lines from Cogeco cable but they dont monitor the BW so i get unlimited for the same price and speed i would have to pay cogeco for 60gb a month.

[Ryoken]

wont last for long as is wholesale of bell.

same with teksavvy is wholesale of bell all dsl in ontario is owned by bell technically

There are places that aren't Ontatio you know.. And Eastlink, at least in Atlantic Canada, is a Cable company.

Exactly. And they do have a way to monitor. Every ISP does.

Not according to the people I know that work for them.. They have never cared in the past about usage, thus they never implemented a system to accurately track customers usage.

They do their traffic shaping during the day, to keep people from killing the network, but aside from that they really don't care..

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I live in windsor ontario and i pay $50 a month for a 14mb line unlimited BW. I get it from Kelcom. They rent the lines from Cogeco cable but they dont monitor the BW so i get unlimited for the same price and speed i would have to pay cogeco for 60gb a month.

The latest CRTC decision allows Cogeco to tell Kelcom to charge you for your actual bandwidth. That means that your "unlimited" internet will be soon given a limit.

[Scorbing]

The day Brighthouse Networks starts limiting the internet by putting caps on it I will quit using it. That is stupid and ridiculous because then you won't be able to play any online games as you will use all that bandwidth in a heartbeat.

[ironsight2000]

There are places that aren't Ontatio you know.. And Eastlink, at least in Atlantic Canada, is a Cable company.

Bell only really provides internet in Ontario and Quebec so this is only really effecting us. For now, it will effect you guys too.

[Lexcyn]

I really don't see cable companies doing this. They tried having caps here a long time ago, it failed as everyone just went someplace else so now we have none. All of our cable goes through Eastlink, who has no caps.

I think this will really only affect DSL customers in the short term. Who knows what cable will do later on, but for now we are safe (except if you are with Rogers I guess).

[ironsight2000]

yes rogers has caps in place and they are going to impose caps on the wholesale also just like bell is doing so if your ISP is a wholesale that rents from rogers your getting caps down the road.

[zeta_immersion]

Q1: Why is it the case that there are ONLY 2 ISPs in Ontario BELL/Rogers (everyone else rents the pipes from them) ...

-----This is monopoly as Bell has DSL and Rogers Cable, hence if you'd like to go to another ISP say Tecksavvy you still get capped (which theoretically and practically still counts as BELL) hence monopoly

Q2: Why is it the case that there does not exist any other company that provides internet other than BELL/Rogers that is NOT rented from them? where is the competition?!

[ironsight2000]

Q1: Why is it the case that there are ONLY 2 ISPs in Ontario BELL/Rogers (everyone else rents the pipes from them) ...

-----This is monopoly as Bell has DSL and Rogers Cable, hence if you'd like to go to another ISP say Tecksavvy you still get capped (which theoretically and practically still counts as BELL) hence monopoly

Q2: Why is it the case that there does not exist any other company that provides internet other than BELL/Rogers that is NOT rented from them? where is the competition?!

bell owns the last mile to 255front street so no one can touch the lines from 255 front to your house other then bell. thanks to the CRTC thus eliminating competition

[zeta_immersion]

so, you are telling me that because no one is able to pull lines from 225 front st. to 1 yonge (for example) customers are getting shafted ?!

this is amazing

[ironsight2000]

so, you are telling me that because no one is able to pull lines from 225 front st. to 1 yonge (for example) customers are getting shafted ?!

this is amazing

only bell is allowed for dsl/phone and rogers for cable

[Lexcyn]

Q1: Why is it the case that there are ONLY 2 ISPs in Ontario BELL/Rogers (everyone else rents the pipes from them) ...

-----This is monopoly as Bell has DSL and Rogers Cable, hence if you'd like to go to another ISP say Tecksavvy you still get capped (which theoretically and practically still counts as BELL) hence monopoly

Q2: Why is it the case that there does not exist any other company that provides internet other than BELL/Rogers that is NOT rented from them? where is the competition?!

This isn't accurate. We have an ISP in our town that ran its own cables to everything and now is it's own ISP. I know in places like Toronto this can't happen but it did here. I do realize it does have to connect to something outside of us but I'm not sure who they use ... it might be Ontera or something.