Canadians React With Anger to New Internet Usage Caps

Falseprophet

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Jan 13, 2009
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theriddlen said:
I'm not a canadian (and thanks god for that!), but let me ask one question:

What's the reason of this?

I just can't see how limiting access to internet has anything to do with the public interest. It's not like internet is non-renewable resource - it's unlimited.
It's to maintain the effective monopolies of the less than half-dozen telecom companies that control most of the phone, cable and internet traffic in the country. This lack of competition is a big reason why in just over ten years we went from winning global recognition for our online presence, to having some of the worst internet service in the industrialized world. (I remember reading that Canada is the only industrialized nation where paying for "unlimited" internet usage doesn't actually mean unlimited.)
 

chozo_hybrid

What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.
Jul 15, 2009
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captaincabbage said:
PlasmaSnake13 said:
I live in Canada, and this is such a disappointment. I have to MONITOR my activity? I mean, for other people it's second nature, but once you have something for so long, it just seems like a public middle finger. Looks like the multi-million dollar companies can't get enough.

Pure unnecessary greed.
Welcome to Australia mate, where things have always been this shitty.
Same here across the ditch in New Zealand bro.
 

Weaver

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Apr 28, 2008
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IMO bell should be forcibly dissolved into smaller companies. It's gotten so large that there is absolutely no way they don't have a monopoly on ASDL in Ontario.
 

captaincabbage

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chozo_hybrid said:
captaincabbage said:
PlasmaSnake13 said:
I live in Canada, and this is such a disappointment. I have to MONITOR my activity? I mean, for other people it's second nature, but once you have something for so long, it just seems like a public middle finger. Looks like the multi-million dollar companies can't get enough.

Pure unnecessary greed.
Welcome to Australia mate, where things have always been this shitty.
Same here across the ditch in New Zealand bro.
Just don't get us both started on how much it sucks south of the equator.
 

Rayansaki

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May 5, 2009
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In my country we used to have tiny caps and it kept increasing until pretty much all but the mobile connections had unlimited bandwidth.

This seems like they are going the wrong direction, and it's damn stupid.
 

Popido

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Oct 21, 2010
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Good plan. People cant be mad on the internet if they dont have internet.
 

Wildflowers

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Jan 28, 2011
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A nice cursory glance of this site when googling 'great britian internet access'

http://paler.com/uk_broadband_internet_access.html

There ONE on here that is unlimited.
 

Weaver

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Apr 28, 2008
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Lost In The Void said:
Well this just came on Stephen Harper's Facebook and Twitter feeds so small hope?

"Stephen Harper
We're very concerned about CRTC's decision on usage-based billing and its impact on consumers. I've asked for a review of the decision."

Ya not much but its a point in favour of us getting noticed
I'm no fan of Harper, but he knows how to save face. A lot of people are calling for the CRTC to be dissolved or re-staffed because there are too many people in it which have heavy stock investments in telecom companies.
 

silverbullet1989

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Jun 7, 2009
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were i live we only can have 1 provider which charge stupid amounts for their broadband packages, and they've stopped providing an unlimited package. I pay £25.99 a month for a 24mbps connection (can only receive 7mbps in my area) 50GB limit, then im charged £2 for every GB i go over, robbing bastards. So yeah i know how they are feeling =/
 

MrTub

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Mar 12, 2009
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Claptrap said:
200gb? In the uk, I have 10gb a month and that works fine for me....


What do you do with all that...
I didnt even know that 10gb limit exist :eek: May I ask how much your paying for that and at which speeds?
 

MrTub

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Wildflowers said:
http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/Internet/newdatausage?utm_source=shawca&utm_medium=textlink&utm_content=hslanding&utm_campaign=datausage

Exactly how many of you are downloading more than 40 frickin movies a month? And further, exactly how many of you are expecting me, the average consumer (re: downloading a steam game a week plus Rockband DLC and streaming netflix) to live on a shitty network connection because YOUR stupid ass leaves your bit torrent on 24/7 and fucks up my bandwidth?

Get real! The *entire* game of World of Warcraft is 32 gigs. And if you need to download that more than once a month, you need serious computer maintenance! IF you are downloading an entire movie, its still going to be from 600-1500 mbs UNZIPPED. Thats about 2 hours of TV per gig. Are you telling me you are downloading 200 UNZIPPED HOURS OF TV/MOVIES A MONTH?!

Try to maintain some frickin perspective.
A 1080p movie is up to 15gb.
 

chozo_hybrid

What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.
Jul 15, 2009
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captaincabbage said:
chozo_hybrid said:
captaincabbage said:
PlasmaSnake13 said:
I live in Canada, and this is such a disappointment. I have to MONITOR my activity? I mean, for other people it's second nature, but once you have something for so long, it just seems like a public middle finger. Looks like the multi-million dollar companies can't get enough.

Pure unnecessary greed.
Welcome to Australia mate, where things have always been this shitty.
Same here across the ditch in New Zealand bro.
Just don't get us both started on how much it sucks south of the equator.
What he said, I just like to remind others how good they have it compared to us. It's why I get sick of some of the complaints, not all. Some are well founded.
 

shemoanscazrex3

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Mar 24, 2010
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This is a problem with the Canadian government that they allow one company to own almost all of the cables to pipe data through. Now I thought Canada was kinda chill but first 3 year contracts now this.
 

Sandytimeman

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Jan 14, 2011
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wow this scares me. As the only reason for these type of caps are greed on the company's part. I've been using AT&T here in the USA for months paying for their best net package and I'm only paying 10 something a month. And even before that I've always had unlimited access. Its retarded to charge on a per usage system is like...shit when did my modem suddenly become worse then my cellphone(which is unlimited data, calls, and text for just 45 a month)!
 

Lord_Jaroh

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Apr 24, 2007
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yesjam said:
I'm a Canadian customer of Bell Canada...and seriously people, it's been this way for a long time - I'm not sure when usage caps were first implemented but about 7 months ago, I was charged extra for internet usage and was told it was because I went over my monthly limit. Since then I've paid an extra few bucks a month to get an extra 60 GB of usage.

If you haven't come across this before, it's probably because you haven't had to worry about it.
I remember a time when 14400 speed modems were amazing, and a gigabyte of anything was unheard of. I remember when installing Diablo 2 was a big deal; you needed like a gig of space just to play it! I went out and got a larger harddrive just to do it. 20 gigs! I will never fill that! I remember when I put together my first computer from scratch and got 2 300 gig hard drives. I figured it'd take me forever to fill them. There was a time when ISPs spent money upgrading their system to make it faster and equiped to handle larger amounts of information...

ISPs will keep their caps low, so as to charge you more. And with more and more services turning to online options (game downloads via Steam, movies via Netflix, Youtube streaming, etc.) Reaching that cap will be easier and easier as time progresses. Then it will be abig deal, and there will be nothing you can do about it but pay for it (much like gasoline...), unless you fight it now.
 

Ultima Shadow

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Apr 8, 2009
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Antitonic said:
Ultima Shadow said:
I cried a little when I read "only 25 GB per month in Ontario". Damn Australian internet means that this is the best I can hope for atm.
True. And what speeds does that 25GB plan get?

Good old Telstra, and its 20GB, $100/m, 1Mb/s plan. This is (as far as I can tell) half-way decent Internet here
Managed to get lucky with an ADSL1 plan that's supposed to deliver 8mbit for $50 a month as part of a bundle. Can't access ADSL2+ though, and I live in suburban Melbourne. So much for Telstra's much-famed coverage. I feel your pain though. :S
 

HellsingerAngel

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Wildflowers said:
http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/Internet/newdatausage?utm_source=shawca&utm_medium=textlink&utm_content=hslanding&utm_campaign=datausage

Exactly how many of you are downloading more than 40 frickin movies a month? And further, exactly how many of you are expecting me, the average consumer (re: downloading a steam game a week plus Rockband DLC and streaming netflix) to live on a shitty network connection because YOUR stupid ass leaves your bit torrent on 24/7 and fucks up my bandwidth?

Get real! The *entire* game of World of Warcraft is 32 gigs. And if you need to download that more than once a month, you need serious computer maintenance! IF you are downloading an entire movie, its still going to be from 600-1500 mbs UNZIPPED. Thats about 2 hours of TV per gig. Are you telling me you are downloading 200 UNZIPPED HOURS OF TV/MOVIES A MONTH?!

Try to maintain some frickin perspective.
You do realise that file size doesn't take into account packet transfer, upload signals and packet degredation, right? To download a file and measure the bandwidth cost on sites even like Netflix, assume the size is about three times that of the stated file size. Packet degredation sucks, but it's a reality and movies are much larger than you think.
 

Rayansaki

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May 5, 2009
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Wildflowers said:
http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/Internet/newdatausage?utm_source=shawca&utm_medium=textlink&utm_content=hslanding&utm_campaign=datausage

Exactly how many of you are downloading more than 40 frickin movies a month? And further, exactly how many of you are expecting me, the average consumer (re: downloading a steam game a week plus Rockband DLC and streaming netflix) to live on a shitty network connection because YOUR stupid ass leaves your bit torrent on 24/7 and fucks up my bandwidth?

Get real! The *entire* game of World of Warcraft is 32 gigs. And if you need to download that more than once a month, you need serious computer maintenance! IF you are downloading an entire movie, its still going to be from 600-1500 mbs UNZIPPED. Thats about 2 hours of TV per gig. Are you telling me you are downloading 200 UNZIPPED HOURS OF TV/MOVIES A MONTH?!

Try to maintain some frickin perspective.
I use up around 500 GB to 1 TB per month. I have 1 tv that uses 250 KB/s to watch tv and another that uses around 600 KB/s (HD), and that already accounts for more than 200 GB without including anything else.

Also, the days of 1 gigabyte movies are over, you don't want to watch a shitty resolution on an hdtv, you want to download a 7 to 15 gig 720p to 1080p movie.

1.1 GB is the size of the average TV episode nowadays.

200GB in bandwidth is nothing.