Too bad we can’t apply this to banks who ‘overuse’ fees to prevent us making use of our money we’re allowing them to hold (and make money off of) for us. Lots of other examples come to mind.
The cable company submission to the CRTC on usage based billing confirms what has been readily apparent to consumers for some time: there is no link between the prices charged by ISPs for usage pricing and the actual costs to ISPs. According to the cable companies:
“In order to be effective as an economic ITMP, the usage based price component needs to be established so as to discourage use above the set limit. The price should incent use in excess of the limit only to the extent that the consumer would gain significant value from that usage. If the price is set substantially below the consumer’s value, it will have little influence on usage. It follows that the price does not necessarily reflect the cost of supplying the network capacity.”
In other words, UBB is behaviour based billing, not usage based billing. Notwithstanding the claims about fairness, paying what you use, or costs to the network, overage pricing is not connected to cost or even value – it is designed to price above the real value to stop Canadians from “overusing” the Internet.
Which can be expressed as saying the ISP wants more money for the same service and isn’t interested in expanding the level of service offered even though is in some ways going against potential revenue gains.
Does Canada have a problem with monopolies and political payola like we do?
We sure do.
Funny that this comes up the same day Google announces its 1 GBPS line going up in Kansas City.
Coincidentally these ISPs, who also control the satellite/cable tv market, started lowering their caps and pushing for the CRTC to mandate these caps be pushed onto internet re-sellers just as Netflix started to offer its services here.
I agree, it’s insane.
If it costs them $1 per GB, and they charge $5 per GB, then they’d want you to use more.
Just like gas (petrol).
The difference here is Canadians have the CRTC to oversee and regulate not only prices, but also terms. Something Americans can only dream of.
It’s called rationing with high prices. The alternative of low priced rationing causes shortages.
Seems everyone misunderstood the article, which you get if you follow the link to the submission. This is written not by Comcast, but by smaller ISPs who purchase from the big providers wholesale. It appears in point #9 that they are saying the small ISPs are also being billed by the big companies with a certain quota on usage. So if you are limited in how much internet you can use as a company, how would you enforce that quota on your customers?
The networks are having real trouble because they’re having real competition from the internet.
Once Hulu comes to Canada that’s going to pretty much be it.
TV is going to get relegated to having the same cultural authority as it did back in the days of Tommy Douglas, Pierson and Diefenbaker.
It wasn’t bad, mind, but it wasn’t a fast-paced, happening thing.
Imagine being to have all of the old episodes of the Beachcombers with Bruno Gerussi available 24/7/365. 🙂
Or Pierre Berton (that well-known Hugenot transplant,) or Peter Gzowski (that well known Polish immigrant.)
Keerist! I’ve just realized something..
“Who’s Like us? Damn few, and they’re all dead“
Canada has good beer
Rogers 2 days after Netflix came to Canada cut net access packages down from 60 G a month to 40 G a month. If u go over that cap each month It’s 3 bucks per G on overages. Rogers sells cable TV,Internet and cell phone access. Most people I know are bundled up. So It’s hard to get a monthly price for stand alone net access but It’s around $50 per month for stand alone net. If u are bundled It’s about $45.
Compared to Comcast in the US, with net access at $40 a month for 250 G.
Canadians are getting screwed.
msb,
Hey, I liked Beachcombers.
Not all day mind you, but it was good entertainment. Corner Gas was better. They showed that one on a Chicago station for awhile.
How much is a NetFlix stream? Is it 4GB like a DVD?