Bell and the CRTC can go f*#@ themselves.

[AnonymousBroccoli]

Just been waiting for the bomb to drop, and here it is. A while back, the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission... Canada's FCC, I believe) made some kind of ruling to allow Canadian ISPs (or maybe just Bell, not sure) to institute user-based billing. (I'm not super sure about the specifics, but anyhow.) I use a DSL re-seller called TekSavvy, who basically lease service and bandwidth from Bell. What I have now is a 5Mbps line, 200GB/month cap, for $31.95/month. Not a fast connection, but very reasonable pricing. Today, I got an e-mail...

http://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/fbhaf/i_am_fucking_livid_right_now_teksavvy_just/

http://www.dslreports.com/r0/download/1622170~b9dce804f22022103107edea23e17b53/UBB-Notice-5Mbps.pdf

Starting in March, Bell is forcing TekSavvy down to a monthly usage cap of 25GB, with overage charges in Ontario starting at $1.90/GB.

Seriously, fuck telecom companies.

 

[Thoth]

This is absolutely unconscionable. Especially once you find how much it costs these companies to supply you with a gigabyte of data.

Hint: It's less than a penny.

 

[AnonymousBroccoli]

https://twitter.com/ALL_CAPS/statuses/31464364435316736

@ALL_CAPS
I've used 6.4GB streaming Netflix today. At the new UBB rates that's $12.80 ($17 in Quebec) Bell's cost: 7 cents. #UBB #CRTC

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

The implications of the whole thing upset me. My ISP (a local company) has no bandwith cap, but:

1. It really sucks for people who do. A friend of mine with Rogers in London received an e-mail stating he was reaching 75% of his cap. Since he is not a usual torrent downloader / uploader and really just surfs the net, the fact he was able to pull this off must mean it's easier to use up your cap than I realize.

2. I'm a Netflix Canada customer. I like that they are trying to add new things on a regular basis. They are not Netflix US, but they seem to be putting an effort forth to expand the library. UBB will KILL THEM when no one wants to be a customer.

 

[AnonymousBroccoli]

Judging by my router's stats, on a slow day, I use a gigabyte. Granted, I've tended to be home all day, and soon I won't, so that may change. I'll have to keep an eye on it in the next few weeks while I'm still relatively un-capped and also out of the house.

Re-sellers do have the option to offer traffic "insurance" (basically traffic tiers). 65GB total for an extra $4.75, 105GB for $9.50 more. But, like a texting or mobile voice package, you seemingly have to choose in advance, and hope you guessed right. I know I can't stick to 25GB, so it'll be at least another $5-10/month. And that "insurance" money apparently goes straight to Bell.

Netflix apparently runs about 1GB/hour, more or less. I haven't used it, but I might have liked to at some point. It's shortcomings are mainly Bell, Shaw, Rogers, etc. owning the rights to everything in Canada and not letting Netflix have much content. (TV content, anyways. Don't know much about movie rights.)

I'd really like to see some multimedia heavyweights like Microsoft, Sony, Apple, Nintendo, Steam, Google/YouTube, Netflix, etc. step in and throw a shit fit.

 

[AnonymousBroccoli]

This is all in addition to HST coming in this year, and bumping people's ISP bills by 7-8% in BC and Ontario.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I use shaw and they've started a cap too. I think my cap is 65gigs which I'd normally blow through easily. I don't know how to even keep track of how much I use. It's extremely lame especially since I was thinking about trying Netflix Canada out but now I don't see much point.

 

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

You guys are getting screwed over there. Europe is pretty decent (still) for ISP's, I think that's because we have a decent choice of who to go to. If a company (BT for example) start to restrict and be harsh, people just up and leave and go to whoever will be cheap and not really care how much you use the internet or what for.

Sky Internet is 20mb and uncapped, and its pretty cheap (even cheaper if you have Sky TV package). It doesn't even bottleneck connections at peak time either (at least not noticeably). TalkTalk have refused to recognise any court actions request customer details when it comes to piracy (claiming that there is no way to be 100% accurate which customer has been assigned which IP at any given time).

Feel sorry for you guys.

 

[Red Baron]

I wonder what Telus is. I mean I have the package deal, but I don't want to get fucked over like they just did to Bell users.

 

[vivisectvi]

I don't think it matters - Isn't Telus just getting their net connection off of a larger company like Bell or Rogers anyway?

I'm on Rogers right now with a 60GB cap. I rarely approach it as I'm not downloading things each and every day. I normally torrent a bunch of stuff over a week and that will tide me over until the next month hits and my cap resets. No biggie, but I do think that this ruling is total and complete bullshit.

 

[Kageho]

As far as I know, since Dad works for Telus, there isn't anything in the pipes to fuck over people like Bell users did. Though, if Bell makes a ton of money off of it, they would jump on it.

You pay Bell if you want to get net connection from Ontario to the Atlantic.
You pay Telus if you want to get net connection from Alberta to the Pacific.
If Saskatchewan went private, their lines would go back to the company that put them in the ground. Which would be Telus.
If Manitoba went private, their lines would go back to the company that put them in the ground. Which would be Telus.

So yeah, its Telus if you are West. Its Bell if you are East.

And just think! Telus and Bell nearly merged. So yeah, that's right. Telus/Bell would've owned the internet connection lines in all of Canada.

Gotta love Canada. We just like screwing ourselves over.

 

[Red Baron]

Sure our banks don't fold, but they will limit our porn games.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I know there was something in the paper with Telus saying they won't ding people for going over after two warnings like Shaw, that they'd contact the person if they kept going over but it had to be chronic/drastic. I know that around a year ago my parents got a call from Telus because my dad had drastically exceeded the limit. He didn't understand how to remove torrents and the whole uploading thing so he had like 30 torrents seeding.

The bad thing about Telus is I saw a chart just the other day ranking the various ISP's streaming quality and it was the lowest on the chart. It was a link from Fark, that also had a chart for US companies.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Found it: http://techblog.netflix.com/2011/01/netflix-performance-on-top-isp-networks.html

 

[ViciousFish]

I have a Sasktel Max setup. We're uncapped and so far haven't heard anything from them about this.

 

[AntiLeaf33]

I use Eastlink in Halifax, and I don't believe that there is any cap. I have heard of excessive downloaders getting throttled, but no out right cap.

 

[vivisectvi]

Getting more and more coverage..

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/does-internet-billing-decision-make-canada-a-digital-backwater/article1890230/

Opposition parties are taking a stand against Internet metering after Industry Minister Tony Clement signaled he is probing a CRTC decision expected to raise the cost of using the web.

The Liberals and New Democrats are both pledging to overturn the telecom regulator’s “usage-based billing” ruling that effectively kills “unlimited” Internet usage plans.
NDP digital affairs critic Charlie Angus is also calling for further action beyond reversing the CRTC decision to protect consumers already being hit by downloading caps.

“What are we? A digital backwater?”

Mr. Angus said Canadian consumers are being held hostage by a small number of big Internet providers who dominate the web access industry.

“We don’t have a market. We have a Family Compact,” the New Democrat said, referring to the elites who used to control Upper Canada in the early 19th century.

“And we have a CRTC that acts as a short order cook for that Family Compact.”

The CRTC ruling triggered widespread outrage among consumer groups. It’s also prompted a backlash from small business owners who warn it will thwart their ability to use online services such as video and online teleconferencing.

The controversy is a good cause for opposition parties looking for publicity and donations.

“We’re taking a stand with you against a bad policy that hurts consumers, stifles competition and innovation, and makes the Internet less open,” the Liberal Party website says.

“A donation, whatever the amount, is the best way to ensure the Liberal Party has the resources it needs to fight for an open and innovative internet environment.”

Mr. Angus said big media companies – cable TV giants or telecom providers – have a conflict of interest in selling Internet access.

That’s because Canadian consumers are increasingly turning to web-based TV and movie offerings such as the video-streaming service Netflix, which rapidly eats up consumers’ Internet usage quotas.

“Your cable giant is also your cellphone provider and is also your TV dealer and their biggest threat is Netflix and other emerging Internet media,” the NDP MP said.

“So if Netflix offers someone a better deal than Rogers the only thing Rogers has to do is put a billing cap on and you won’t be on Netflix for very long.”

In an interview Monday, Mr. Clement acknowledged the strong reaction to the CRTC ruling. “I am hearing from a lot of people who feel this will damage our economy,” he said. “I have to be fair on these things – but I am hearing from people that they are worried this will stifle innovation because the cost of using Internet services will be prohibitively high.”

Also - the openmedia.ca petition was only at 40,000 signatures when I signed it last week. It's now up to over 228,000.

 

[Kageho]

Considering these companies have asked the federal government to help out with putting down more lines to increase the fibre optics, I'm betting that the government as a whole at this point is going to say "fuck you telecommunication companies". After all, we already pay the most for cell phones in charges, and we're not one of the greatest with internet fees before this bullshit.

 

[vivisectvi]

Where are you again Flik?

 

[vivisectvi]

So Harper's gov't just told the CRTC to reverse the decision or they'll do it themselves! Awesome!

 

[Kageho]

Where are you again Flik?

...everyone thinks I'm an American who says he's a Canadian from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I really do live in there. Honest.

I mean here.

That totally wasn't a goof up from an American lying. Honest Mother Canucker!

Now on the serious side.

I'm glad this is getting reversed, because it honestly makes no sense. There's only 2 companies that provide wholesale internet services and that's Telus and Bell. How the hell did that benefit anyone other than Bell and Telus? Like, it just blows my mind that even was allowed. Hell, Bell was the only one of the two offering unlimited internet as unlimited internet. So really that only helped out Bell. Just does not make any sense at all.

 

[Kageho]

Basically the CRTC's decision is based on the fact that small ISPs are 6% of the market, therefore it doesn't hurt anyone who's with a large distributor.

I thought we were supposed to be helping these small ISPs become bigger ones to help influence the market? And there's no way in hell this won't effect anyone who's with a large distributor.

Also, they are only holding off the UBB till they can get a better way of wording it so it comes off less offensive. Great, just great.

 

[vivisectvi]

Clement said if they come back with something similar he'll still reverse it.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Somehow I misunderstood this whole situation as Bell / Rogers / Telus imposing their own additional limits on existing customers. It didn't fully hit me the ruling was basically telling my independent ISP to forcefully screw me over to comply with government law.

That's just ridiculous and I'm glad this doesn't appear to be happening.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I even got a form letter from Ignatief (spelled wrong obviously) because I signed the petition. Nice to see them jumping on this whole thing.

 

[AnonymousBroccoli]

Dear TekSavvy Customer,

Because of your support and participation in reaching out to the
various MPs and the Minister of Industry we're pleased to announce
that the March 1st UBB implementation date has been suspended indefinitely.

With over 460,000 signatures having been sent to Parliament Minister
Clement and the Industry committee requested the CRTC review its
recent decision in full, which it has obliged and are now doing.
Until this review has occurred UBB over DSL has been completely
shelved. Minister Clement also added they would overturn the review
should it resemble in any way to the previous outcome!

So, congratulations to all who've spoken up about this issue, you've
made a huge difference. As a Canadian, today, I can honestly say it's
refreshing to know politicians do listen and will affect change when
the public at large shows concern!

Effective March 1st we are going to move forward and make changes to
the Usage, but we're going to make it a positive one!

We are reinstating the Unlimited package but the 200GB package will be
changed... to 300GB! UBB is about Internet Costs, and as a result of
lower costs with our providers (Peer1, Lime Light, etc...), costs
outside our relationship with companies like Bell, we are extending
the savings on to you, the clients... Enjoy!

lol owned

 

[vivisectvi]

Does TekSavvy do cable as well or only DSL?

 

[Kageho]

Man, I wish I could sign up with TekSavvy. That was just so utterly awesome.

 

[AnonymousBroccoli]

They do cable in some areas. Not here in London yet, or we'd probably switch, if only to not give Bell any money (and a speed bump would be nice).

Here's an availability check, for Ontario, at least. Switch the location top-right for elsewhere:
http://teksavvy.com/en/checkontariocable.asp

 

[Kageho]

Those are some very nice prices. Considering 6M download speeds and 300GB total per month.

If my dad didn't work for Telus, I'd probably consider that.