chemgirl
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2009
- Messages
- 2,345
I am furious that this hasn't been getting more press in Canada.
Here's an article that explains everything in a nutshell: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/canada-gets-first-bitter-dose-of-metered-internet-billing.ars
Basically as of March 1st, third party internet providers will be required to adhere to Bell Canada's bandwidth caps on internet. That means that my current plan of 200 GB per month will now be 25 GB per month. The charge per additional GB will be around $2.00. This is mere months after Netflix has been introduced in Canada. Bell Canada also provides television services and movie on demand service. They own one of our major television companies. It seems like this move to cap bandwidth is their way of forcing people away from Netflix and back to their video on demand service.
Luckily my service provider is selling bandwidth insurance that I can use to get extra bandwidth, but Bell users aren't so lucky.
To top if all off, existing lines and infrastructure were heavily subsidized using tax dollars. Bell technically owns them, but infrastructure costs were partially payed for by taxpayers. Third party ISP's lease usage of these lines from Bell Canada. Its not really a competitive market.
Any other Canadians affected by this? Anybody taking any steps to let the CRTC know what they think of the new ruling?
I'm scared that this might be the first step towards even less bandwidth. I received a letter from Bell last week offering me a year of internet service for $16.95 per month. When I looked at the fine print the connection was their lite internet. It was 2 GB per month with a fee of $2.50 per additional GB. The monthly fee would jump to $31.95 after one year. The interesting thing here is that right now, the $31.95 package HAS A CAP OF 25 GB! So are they planning on dropping the cap even more over the next year? Will third party companies be forced to drop their caps as well?
Here's an article that explains everything in a nutshell: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/canada-gets-first-bitter-dose-of-metered-internet-billing.ars
Basically as of March 1st, third party internet providers will be required to adhere to Bell Canada's bandwidth caps on internet. That means that my current plan of 200 GB per month will now be 25 GB per month. The charge per additional GB will be around $2.00. This is mere months after Netflix has been introduced in Canada. Bell Canada also provides television services and movie on demand service. They own one of our major television companies. It seems like this move to cap bandwidth is their way of forcing people away from Netflix and back to their video on demand service.
Luckily my service provider is selling bandwidth insurance that I can use to get extra bandwidth, but Bell users aren't so lucky.
To top if all off, existing lines and infrastructure were heavily subsidized using tax dollars. Bell technically owns them, but infrastructure costs were partially payed for by taxpayers. Third party ISP's lease usage of these lines from Bell Canada. Its not really a competitive market.
Any other Canadians affected by this? Anybody taking any steps to let the CRTC know what they think of the new ruling?
I'm scared that this might be the first step towards even less bandwidth. I received a letter from Bell last week offering me a year of internet service for $16.95 per month. When I looked at the fine print the connection was their lite internet. It was 2 GB per month with a fee of $2.50 per additional GB. The monthly fee would jump to $31.95 after one year. The interesting thing here is that right now, the $31.95 package HAS A CAP OF 25 GB! So are they planning on dropping the cap even more over the next year? Will third party companies be forced to drop their caps as well?