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

Maddog said:
I'm trying to comprehend this but I'm still not entirely sure. Does this apply to every single ISP in Canada? Is there any ISp who will provide caps higher than 25gb?
For $30? Not anymore.
 
Brinbe said:
Sigh... so disappointed that such bullshit is perpetrated in this great country. We deserve better than what we get.

Brinbe
Member
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For those of us on Bell's grandfathered unlimited plans, it has not been touched on in this thread as of yet, but you should be aware.

The CRTC has also, in this ruling, given Bell the right to raise our grandfathered accounts amounts twice a year in order to force us to move over to their UBB accounts.
 
I sent a letter to the NDP stating how furious I am - told them if dissolving the CRTC is in their platform, I am voting for them

Now to send one to my local MP
 
Being in Winnipeg, and being with Shaw's Extreme plan (Ugh), I guess I should consider myself lucky I get 100 GBs (right? Tell me this is at least true). I'd wonder if there was a better service provider to go with but in this area there's nothing but shit. It's a crying, crying shame.

But this is brutal. I sent my letters to my MP back several months ago but I wasn't even granted an automated courtesy response. Glad to see it falling on deaf ears again.
 
ColonelSkills said:
But this is brutal. I sent my letters to my MP back several months ago but I wasn't even granted an automated courtesy response. Glad to see it falling on deaf ears again.

That's the shitty thing. This is such an incredibly hostile act and it feels like there's nothing we can do about it.
 
dream said:
That's the shitty thing. This is such an incredibly hostile act and it feels like there's nothing we can do about it.
This.

Perhaps the most important regulatory decision ever about Internet, blatantly anti consumer and anti competition, and not a word of outrage will reach the media and therefore voters. No politician will make this a major policy point in their platform. We just have to pucker up and get fucked.

Bell and Rogers make billions in profit off government subsidized networks. Why the hell did we give them all that money and the stranglehold on the market? It had been nothing but bad for consumers. If the government was worried about rural service their subsidies could've went to infrastructure there alone. The money actually given to Bell and Rogers has been far more than needed for that, and what did the public get for that investment? High prices, low caps, and the worst customer experience you could imagine due to no competition. Fuck the CRTC.
 
Spike said:
For those of us on Bell's grandfathered unlimited plans, it has not been touched on in this thread as of yet, but you should be aware.

The CRTC has also, in this ruling, given Bell the right to raise our grandfathered accounts amounts twice a year in order to force us to move over to their UBB accounts.

Fuck. FUCK.
 
I emailed my MP.

I can't believe I'm contemplating voting NDP for the next elections, but I totally will unless something is done about this.
 
This is pretty funny. I'm about to move out (living in Australia) and the plans here have gotten phenomenally better over the past few years.

30 Gigabytes $39.95
150 Gigabytes $59.95
250 Gigabytes $79.95
350 Gigabytes $99.95
600 Gigabytes $109.95
1,000 Gigabytes $129.95

Feels good man
 
jambo said:
This is pretty funny. I'm about to move out (living in Australia) and the plans here have gotten phenomenally better over the past few years.
Shaw (Western Canada cable monopoly) actually lowered the caps a few months ago.

25Mbps/1Mbps, previously 120GB > now 100GB/month. :(

They claimed that it was a trial in a specific area hundreds of miles away however every customer received the benefit and everyone received an email explaining the raising on the caps. Coincidentally a few months ago when they decided to start installing monitoring equipment to enforce these caps they lowered it for the "benefit of the customer".
 
jambo said:
This is pretty funny. I'm about to move out (living in Australia) and the plans here have gotten phenomenally better over the past few years.

It's like bizarro world, Canada's internet seems to mirror ours from 5-10 years ago. I feel for them, it's a terrible situation.
 
You have my condolences, Canada.

Australia has finally emerged from the horrible days of restrictive bandwidth caps, and you can now get unlimited ADSL2+ from a variety of sources.

I know how it feels though. What's even worse is the whole charging extra for going over. Most plans here (except Telstra, lol), used to just throttle your bandwidth. So you could still wait until the end of the month and just download everything in those last couple of days.
 
Rogers and Bell rape and rape while the CRTC keeps nodding.

The week Netflix came to Canada, the $60 Rogers plan 95GB CAP WAS LOWERED to 80GB as a direct response to competition. That's right, Rogers is so comfortable with their monopoly that their response to competition is to decrease service because they can make an alternative seem less appealing at the same time. That's a double FUCK YOU CUSTOMERS, we get less Internet AND Netflix becomes a less attractive option to cable. That could not be more blatantly anti-competitive, since Rogers on Demand (their pay per view service) doesn't count towards any data caps.

The CRTC is fucking Canada so hard.
 
I'm still livid. This doesn't feel good at all -- it's not comforting to know that my government is essentially run by corporations (telecom corporations of all things).

TekSavvy has been good to me, but they're going to get fucked from both sides of their services eventually. I don't know what to do... My Netflix account... So fucked up.

My mayor is an idiot, my premier is an idiot and my prime minister is a puppet. I fear for my country's future...
 
You know what was awesome? Telus, Bell, and Rogers all waiting until the last minute to announce iPhone 4 plans (we're talking literally a day before the launch) and all 3 carriers ended up offering 6GB of data for $30. Not a megabyte more. Not a dollar less.

What a coincidence, huh?
 
Sinatar said:

I'm not really sure how getting rid of the CRTC altogether would help any. Then there'd be absolutely no check on corporate interests. The CRTC is simply corrupted and failing at their task.

The proper solution is that the organization needs to be overhauled. Perhaps the CRTC needs clarity on some issues and its direction.

Here's the CRTC's mission statement:

Mission Statement
To ensure that Canadian communications contribute fairly and equitably to Canada's economic, social and cultural prosperity through regulation, supervision and public dialogue.

Vision Statement
World-class quality communications, with a distinct Canadian presence, in the public interest.

I'd think that the CRTC has maybe forgotten about that "World-class quality communications" bit?

Basically folks should mail their MP and perhaps vote NDP in the next election if no other party they prefer steps up to the plate.
 
dream said:
You know what was awesome? Telus, Bell, and Rogers all waiting until the last minute to announce iPhone 4 plans (we're talking literally a day before the launch) and all 3 carriers ended up offering 6GB of data for $30. Not a megabyte more. Not a dollar less.

What a coincidence, huh?

If you look in a Canadian thesaurus (or at least the one the CRTC uses), collusion is a synonym for competition.
 
This is pretty fucked up. I still can't believe ISPs in other countries get away with these caps and borderline extortionist prices.

One of the biggest ISPs in Sweden offers uncapped 100 Mbit broadband for ~50 USD. I don't think any ISPs here even offers capped subscriptions.
 
Brandson said:
If Ignatieff or Layton is looking to engage younger voters, focusing on this issue would be an excellent way to do it. Unfortunately all party leaders in Canada are far too old to be able to understand the sorry state of internet service in this country to do anything about it.

No, I doubt they would vote anyway. This particular generation of young voters are lazy as hell when it comes to voting.
 
Well at least my local MP is Michael ignatieff ... Yay? Just sent him a 2 page long rant how the CRTC is going against the faith of the Telecommunications Act - not sure if that angle will help anything
 
As someone who used to have a 400mb cap, then later a 24gb cap I feel for you guys. Internet should be getting better, not worse.
 
hamchan said:
As someone who used to have a 400mb cap, then later a 24gb cap I feel for you guys. Internet should be getting better, not worse.

I turned on one of my computers today and didn't touch a thing... It downloaded 700 MB.
 
hydragonwarrior said:
No, I doubt they would vote anyway. This particular generation of young voters are lazy as hell when it comes to voting.

As much as I despise politics and never involve myself in the electoral process... this is actually something I would get out and vote for.
 
DopeyFish said:
Well at least my local MP is Michael ignatieff ... Yay? Just sent him a 2 page long rant how the CRTC is going against the faith of the Telecommunications Act - not sure if that angle will help anything

Your avatar and tag are prefect for this thread.
 
Just finished talking to Tek Savvy and they have no idea what their new plans will be. They said they should know in a couple of weeks.

I'm going to be switching just on principle.

dream said:
I vote NDP every year. It doesn't do a fucking thing.

So do I. :(
 
Ledsen said:
This is pretty fucked up. I still can't believe ISPs in other countries get away with these caps and borderline extortionist prices.

One of the biggest ISPs in Sweden offers uncapped 100 Mbit broadband for ~50 USD. I don't think any ISPs here even offers capped subscriptions.
Most of it comes down to strict regulation. No net neutrality laws here; it's irrelevant. Providers are forced to be open about it and it suddenly becomes very unattractive to cap connections when you have to advertise with it. It's too late if it's already a normal habit for ISPs though, like in this case.
 
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