Thursday, July 14, 2011

CRTC hammers the consumer yet one more time … usage based billing is on its way, and it won’t be cheap …

This one should actually hang around Bell Canada’s neck, since it is their application for usage based billing that the CRTC approved …

Bell being fresh off their conviction and massive fine for misleading marketing, must have felt the need to seek government help in their quest to get deeper into their customers pockets (from what must be their favorite lapdog) and they got it …

From the CBC article at:

Usage-based internet billing - Technology & Science - CBC News

If you have an unlimited usage plan, usage-based billing probably won't concern you. But none of the big internet service providers (ISPs) offer unlimited plans. The smaller companies that do are phasing them out, after the CRTC ruled in favor of a Bell application to put usage caps on its wholesale customers.

The article goes on to mention something I have railed against in the past …

Canadian ISPs charge some of the highest rates in the world for exceeding usage caps, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (see chart 4g) .

They further comment on Bell’s assertion that it needs to fleece its own customers if it is to continue to provide Canadians with top shelf Internet service …

But aren't we're getting world-class internet access?

Speedtest.net — which ranks internet speeds around the world — found that Canadian upload and download speeds are significantly better than they are in the United States. But they lag countries like Latvia, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, and — for upload speeds — Ghana.

The site ranks Canadian download speeds 33rd in the world. Upload speeds are ranked 53rd.

As I have said many times … something needs to change. Since we are paying the highest rates in the world, is it to much to ask to be in the top ten of speeds both down and up? Really?

No comments: