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Usage Based Billing approved, Canadian govt shoots it down, more developments to come

Zombie James said:
Teksavvy's new prices are out... not good.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25398612-UBB-Notice
Click to expand...

Man, if I were TekSavvy I wouldn't be being diplomatic about this at all. There's no reason to be professional about this. Customers are being screwed, TekSavvy isn't the one doing the screwing, and they should get ahead of the backlash as best as they can.

The notice to customers should be written in 72 point red font saying "BELL CANADA, A COMPANY YOU DON'T EVEN DO BUSINESS WITH, HAS LOBBIED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO FORCE US TO CHARGE YOU MORE. THINK THIS IS RIDICULOUS? WE DO TOO." and then every paragraph about the new plans should end with "Think this is too much? We're sorry. Blame Bell Canada. Bell Canada are forcing you to pay more." and their phone service should say "Thank you for calling TekSavvy. Bell Canada is responsible for raising your prices. We're sorry."

The part of the notice that says "UBB is an increasingly controversial..." should say "UBB is a frankly ridiculous...". There's no need to present this issue as if Bell has a point.
 
I hate how I still have to pay for the "band x" shit on top of my monthly bill, and now the extra bandwidth.

I don't know how much I'm averaging a month, maybe under a 100 the past few months. So at this rate, if I take the extra 80 GBs, I'm adding another $10 to my bill on top of the band shit.

Ugh.

edit - I'm averaging 182GB the past 3 months
 
Stumpokapow said:
Man, if I were TekSavvy I wouldn't be being diplomatic about this at all. There's no reason to be professional about this. Customers are being screwed, TekSavvy isn't the one doing the screwing, and they should get ahead of the backlash as best as they can.

The notice to customers should be written in 72 point red font saying "BELL CANADA, A COMPANY YOU DON'T EVEN DO BUSINESS WITH, HAS LOBBIED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO FORCE US TO CHARGE YOU MORE. THINK THIS IS RIDICULOUS? WE DO TOO." and then every paragraph about the new plans should end with "Think this is too much? We're sorry. Blame Bell Canada. Bell Canada are forcing you to pay more." and their phone service should say "Thank you for calling TekSavvy. Bell Canada is responsible for raising your prices. We're sorry."

The part of the notice that says "UBB is an increasingly controversial..." should say "UBB is a frankly ridiculous...". There's no need to present this issue as if Bell has a point.
Click to expand...
We'll they've been doing plenty of that on the dslreports forums but I agree they should make it more clear in the pdf that goes to all customers it affects!
 
I am moving into a new apartment monday and I hate the fact I have to call Rogers to set up internet with them there.I thought about Bell because I do not like rogers much but after reading some of the stuff in here I will probably just stick with Rogers
 
At this rate, it's cheaper for me to switch to TS Cable.

DSL + Band + Insurance + tax = $57.12 / month
Cable (10Mbs) + tax = $41.75

So, whether or not I switch to cable for Feb's billing cycle or March, it's still cheaper for me in the long run even when I factor in the cable activation and buying a modem off RFD or something.

Hopefully estimations for Cable UBB come out.
 
The new caps and pricing are not as good as before, but it's still cheaper than Bell or Rogers. I think it's best to stay with Teksavvy because it's still a better value and because we should be giving Bell and Rogers as little money as possible.
 
I've picked up the 80GB insurance thing for now, but I'm hoping that the cable UBB will have a higher cap.

But I'm actually holding out for something colossal to blow the UBB out of existence.
 
Zzoram said:
The new caps and pricing are not as good as before, but it's still cheaper than Bell or Rogers. I think it's best to stay with Teksavvy because it's still a better value and because we should be giving Bell and Rogers as little money as possible.
Click to expand...

I'd like to also add that their customer service is fantastic. Bell and Roger's would have to pay me at this point to put up with their bullshit.
 
I agree with Teksavvy being too civil about it. They're even pulling the old Bell/Rogers trick of inflating what you can and can't do with low bandwidth.

66VB8.png

http://teksavvy.com/en/faq-ubb_on.asp

Wow, so many emails! I don't know in what planet they live on where 1GB = 2/3rd of an HD movie, or if you do anything besides checking email you might "potentially" need more than 25GB.
 
You DSL users better raise enough of a stink about this so the feds have to intervene before Rogers' UBB plans are approved. :)

My sister just started a program at Ryerson for Design Management and got an assignment asking whether it made sense for Bell to launch an online video on demand service, and how would they be able to compete with services like netflix and itunes. Her group pretty much unanimously come to the conclusion that Netflix was a much better deal and iTunes has much more brand appeal. Just goes to show that the young-educated minds of today are going to be in for a shocker when they realize that the CRTC just regulated out competition.

Zombie James said:
Wow, so many emails! I don't know in what planet they live on where 1GB = 2/3rd of an HD movie, or if you do anything besides checking email you might "potentially" need more than 25GB.
Click to expand...

To be fair, netflix quotes a GB of bandwidth as being an hour of HD netflix. I myself see 1GB as being a crap bitrate 720p 44 minute TV show from both legitimate and not-so-legitimate sources.
 
Zombie James said:
Wow, so many emails! I don't know in what planet they live on where 1GB = 2/3rd of an HD movie, or if you do anything besides checking email you might "potentially" need more than 25GB.
Click to expand...

Damn... when I watch a movie in HD on Netflix I burn between 3-5 GBs depending on the length of the movie.
 
Kinitari said:
Blegh, three high bandwidth users in my apartment. We scrape under 120GBs most months, but still :(.
Click to expand...

I would argue that you shouldn't consider yourselves to be "high bandwidth" users as if you were some freak of nature that's ruining our networks. Consider yourself to be three internet users. 120GB / 3 is far from being "high" by today's standards.

Use Cisco's report saying that 500GB/month should be what the "average connected family" uses as a reference point.
 
Until the Canadian government regulates the board of the CRTC, the whole board is a farce. People who have worked for the largest Canadian telecommunication companies in Canada should never be allowed on a board that dictates the rules of the industry. For the bio of Len Katz (VP Telecommunications) worked with Rogers for 17 years and then Bell for another 11. I don't give a shit if he's the most trustworthy person in the world, the CRTC board members have conflicting interest here. I'd love to see what a full investigation of the CRTC would turn up.

Stumpokapow said:
Man, if I were TekSavvy I wouldn't be being diplomatic about this at all. There's no reason to be professional about this. Customers are being screwed, TekSavvy isn't the one doing the screwing, and they should get ahead of the backlash as best as they can.
Click to expand...

TekSavvy are in a position to raise their prices and increase profits all while blaming the major communication companies. I know there's lots of love here for Teksavvy but why wouldn't they take advantage of this situation? Unless they have to show their margins they can increase their profits and still have the sun shining on their ass.
 
Well signed my soul to Rogers 46.99 for 60 gig a month for two people.With taxes that pretty much a dollar a gig almost... funny really though its amazing how easy it is to use that up with things lie steam and youtube and whatnot.I was doing the live chat for sony presser on Kotaku the other night and they are like posting youtube videos in the chat im like knock it off even if you stop it ,it still was loading them.Sad that in this age when everything is digital we have to cautious of what we do almost a sort of mini Digital Divide.
 
Is there a list of ISPs that provide the largest amount of bandwidth?
Currently TekSavvy's new DSL price ($86.95 for 300gb/month) is the only option I have without killing Netflix and greatly reducing internet use (large family, many computers, many consoles). All other types of service provided in my area seem to have limits hovering around 125gb (with no additional blocks available). The worst part is that Im paying for all this bandwidth and getting the same shitty speeds.

Second question is it possible to apply for a "Business Internet" connection for my home? It seems entirely worth creating an internet-related business of no real value or profit simply to acquire a business internet line. A business connection is half the price of a residential one with 200~300gb limits. It seems worth dumping even upto $480 into to make it happen, Ill make that money back in 1 year by having saved $40 every month to become deemed a business.

Also why the fuck is Bell offering Fibre with 50 and 75gb limits? Thats infuriating.
 
guys what else can we do? I'm fucking pissed about this... We need action.

It isn't even that much of a difference from what I'm paying now, but it's the principle behind it. I'm thinking of going to tek cable for the time being hoping that something will happen before rogers goes through with UBB, but tbh I don't want to line rogers pockets either.

Professional letters and petitions don't do anything, something else needs to be done...
 
Fixed1979 said:
TekSavvy are in a position to raise their prices and increase profits all while blaming the major communication companies. I know there's lots of love here for Teksavvy but why wouldn't they take advantage of this situation? Unless they have to show their margins they can increase their profits and still have the sun shining on their ass.
Click to expand...
Where are you getting this from? The CRTC had to add in the extra bit about giving wholesalers a 15% discount so they wouldn't immediately go out of business. Get your facts straight. They have to operate their entire business on a 15% discount for something already based on bullshit. Keep in mind that selling bandwidth is their primary (only?) source of income.
 
SupaNaab said:
Is there a list of ISPs that provide the largest amount of bandwidth?
Currently TekSavvy's new DSL price ($86.95 for 300gb/month) is the only option I have without killing Netflix and greatly reducing internet use (large family, many computers, many consoles). All other types of service provided in my area seem to have limits hovering around 125gb (with no additional blocks available). The worst part is that Im paying for all this bandwidth and getting the same shitty speeds.

Second question is it possible to apply for a "Business Internet" connection for my home? It seems entirely worth creating an internet-related business of no real value or profit simply to acquire a business internet line. A business connection is half the price of a residential one with 200~300gb limits. It seems worth dumping even upto $480 into to make it happen, Ill make that money back in 1 year by having saved $40 every month to become deemed a business.

Also why the fuck is Bell offering Fibre with 50 and 75gb limits? Thats infuriating.
Click to expand...

We're considering this as well, and will look into it. Right now, I'd go with the 25gb+125gb insurance. It'll probably be around $10.00 more than we pay right now, for 50gb less. I can live with this, but I'm not happy about it.

We use Skype for our phone, Netflix a ton (we don't have cable), and my wife and I both play a lot of online games. Last I checked, we usually hit around 140-180gb, so we'll have to watch it a bit.

What about Cable with Teksavvy? Is cable free from this insanity? $52per month for 15mbps unlimited cap is pretty sweet.
 
EvilMario said:
What about Cable with Teksavvy? Is cable free from this insanity? $52per month for 15mbps unlimited cap is pretty sweet.
Click to expand...
Only until the summer. We'll see what the rates will be like then.
 
Fixed1979 said:
Until the Canadian government regulates the board of the CRTC, the whole board is a farce. People who have worked for the largest Canadian telecommunication companies in Canada should never be allowed on a board that dictates the rules of the industry. For the bio of Len Katz (VP Telecommunications) worked with Rogers for 17 years and then Bell for another 11. I don't give a shit if he's the most trustworthy person in the world, the CRTC board members have conflicting interest here. I'd love to see what a full investigation of the CRTC would turn up.



TekSavvy are in a position to raise their prices and increase profits all while blaming the major communication companies. I know there's lots of love here for Teksavvy but why wouldn't they take advantage of this situation? Unless they have to show their margins they can increase their profits and still have the sun shining on their ass.
Click to expand...

No they can't increase their profits. They're paying Bell all that extra money. They're also likely to lose a lot of customers since they no longer provide an alternative service to Bell. All they provide now is a very minor discount.
 
Kinitari said:
Blegh, three high bandwidth users in my apartment. We scrape under 120GBs most months, but still :(.
Click to expand...

40GB is the equivalent of watching an hour of video a day online...I would consider that very average in terms of bandwidth usage.
 
Fixed1979 said:
TekSavvy are in a position to raise their prices and increase profits all while blaming the major communication companies. I know there's lots of love here for Teksavvy but why wouldn't they take advantage of this situation? Unless they have to show their margins they can increase their profits and still have the sun shining on their ass.
Click to expand...

How could they?

- Price higher than Bell: Why would you buy from them instead of Bell? Customers leave immediately, Teksavvy can't "take advantage" of situation.
- Price lower than Bell, within 15%: Profitable, not taking advantage of the situation
- Price more than ~15% lower than Bell: Lose money, clearly not taking advantage of the situation.
 
Wow, the petition just had a big jump in numbers (by Canadian standards) in the last 24 hours. Hopefully this means awareness is building.
 
Just got the teksavvy e-mail. I'm on Cable so I'm assuming this doesn't affect March 1st.

It's only a matter of time though...
 
Sorry for being ignorant but is this mainly an Eastern Canadian problem? I realize it affects all of Canada but it seems like everyone is especially upset because of TekSaavy which I don't believe exists here in Vancouver. The Telus rep I spoke to today didn't seem to know too much about the whole CRTC ruling and told me that Telus enforcement of bandwidth caps was only really if you use peer-peer a lot and go WAY over your limits. I checked my usage online and it says I have used 0% of my usage for the half year straight. And for asking about it (and the xbox deal) I get 15mb down for $18 a month now, which makes me cringe at the price Bell is charging.
 
dream said:
Are people really calling TekSavvy the bad guys here? Really?
Click to expand...

I wasn't calling TekSavvy "the bad guys". I was thinking out loud as to whether or not there was a way for them to take advantage of the situation or at least find a bit of a bright side. However it appears as though the ruling as forced their margins thin enough that there's not enough room to squeeze another couple points out of it.
 
sikkinixx said:
Sorry for being ignorant but is this mainly an Eastern Canadian problem? I realize it affects all of Canada but it seems like everyone is especially upset because of TekSaavy which I don't believe exists here in Vancouver. The Telus rep I spoke to today didn't seem to know too much about the whole CRTC ruling and told me that Telus enforcement of bandwidth caps was only really if you use peer-peer a lot and go WAY over your limits. I checked my usage online and it says I have used 0% of my usage for the half year straight. And for asking about it (and the xbox deal) I get 15mb down for $18 a month now, which makes me cringe at the price Bell is charging.
Click to expand...

You're lucky out there - Telus (afaik) owns the lines, much like Bell does out east here. Shaw is hoping on board with Rogers though. There's going to be bandwidth caps put on cable connections. Telus doesn't enforce their bandwidth caps, but who knows if that'll change. Like some have said though, right now Shaw really only contacts you if you do a lot of P2P downloading/sharing and the like, but that may change soon as well.

Rogers and Bell, who dominant the east, are really fucking over everyone though. There's a lot of small companies that lease their lines from Bell and then charging less than what Bell does with an unlimited cap. Bell doesn't like that which is why we're getting UBB.

Telus is a pretty awesome company overall. Both of my former roommates work there and they love the company and working there. Words cannot express how much I miss my Telus internet, it was fast, reliable and I had no bandwidth cap worries. The Bell connection I am on has constant lag spikes, mediocre speeds and of course a bandwidth cap.
 
snorggy said:
i heard telus has bandwidth caps, but won't be enforcing them... i'll be looking at switching if things get hairy with shaw.
Click to expand...

telus will be enforcing them. when news of UBB first popped up they said they wouldnt but they've quickly back tracked on that comment. all internet will be UBB unless the public fights back.

http://twitter.com/TELUSsupport/status/29705092324134912


Wow, so many emails! I don't know in what planet they live on where 1GB = 2/3rd of an HD movie, or if you do anything besides checking email you might "potentially" need more than 25GB.
Click to expand...

1. at the start of a fresh billing period, make emails with massive sized attachments
2. send email over and over. monthly cap will be exceeded long before 100k emails sent
3. sue for false advertising
4. profit
 
Let the rape of the internet begin.

uc1oq.jpg


Signed up for the 120gb insurance for TekSavvy. I'll wait on cable to see if there are any changes later in the year. If it's still a safe haven, I'll switch over.
 
Man, if I was on that 25GB shit right now, I'd have used up nearly a fifth of it just for GPS updates on my iphone and Garmin.

CANADA CANADA.
 
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