http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...m_campaign=rss
The site gives a nice comparison graph of before and after costs and plans. Basically, before metering Canadians had average Internet experience. After March 1st it won't be about hamstringing "data hogs", who ever they are (how can a person be a hog using what he contracted for?), it will be about raping consumers for the maximum profit Bell can extract using the last-mile Copper wire as a pretext.
This is what is coming to the US if US telecom carriers have their way. The latest ruling by the FCC has given Verizon and Google everything they wanted, but they are suing to gain even more. Quite bluntly, it is corporate America telling the government what it can and cannot do, Democracy be damned.
I was using local BBS in the late 1970s and in the early 1980's I switched to a long distance dialup CompuServe service until the local phone company, Alltel, began offering a dailup Internet connection. As the technology migrated from 1200bd to 2400 then 48K then 56K then 56K V.92 (PCM on both up and down traffic) I followed along, buying a new modem to take advantage of each improvement. The fees ranged from free (local calls to local BBS) to $10/m, $15/m, and $19/m. I barely got the V.92 warmed up when Alltel offered ADSL, which split the phone service into voice and data. IIRC, the data was 1Mb up and 128Kb down. It cost me $29.95/mo. When RoadRunner offered 5Mb/s internet on their cable, along with their TV, I jumped on. The price jumped up to $13 for basic cable and $35 for 5Mb/s Internet, or around $50 plus some taxes and fees. Later their costs climbed to $21/m for basic cable and $70/m for 10Mb/s Internet. When I canceled my RR contract I was paying $120/m for 124 channels of mostly infomercials plus 7Mb/s Internet speed. They finagled the speed down by claiming that the 10Mb/s was a "special offer" which expired and announced that what I was presently getting would cost $135/m. Now, RR is selling 10Mb/s for $35/m and "Turbo" (short duration 15Mb/s) for $45/m. Their TV "special" is $50/m. Their "bundled" deals are $129/m, $135/m and $175/m (4G). That's way too expensive, considering that France's Telecom "triple play" package costs $30 Euros for phone, TV and Internet.
In July of 2008 I canceled RR and signed on to Earthlink.net for a 12Mb/s connection for $72/m I just got the bill and I got a $200 rebate for overcharges for the last six months. This is the second time they've done that. So, as it stands, my effective rate is $51/m for 12Mb/m with NO CAPS. I can live with that.
But, I can tell you this. IF the US ISP's force rates up in this country (and on me) the way they did in Canada there is one choice I will easily take -- drop my Internet accounts, and began promoting the nationalization of the Internet. The Internet is no longer a luxury. With giant international corporations buying up and consolidating all traditional print, radio and TV news sources, a nearly free and totally UNFETTERED Internet is the only hope for Democracy in this country. The RICO Act, the PATRIOT Act, and the DHS have done more damage to the Constitution and personal liberty than the Taliban or radical Muslims ever did. Without an affordable, fast and uncapped connection the only news we'd get is the news the power brokers want us to hear, the way they want us to hear it. If WikiLeaks has proved anything it is that there is a WHOLE LOT of lying by our government to us and to our friends.
This is going to hurt
Starting on March 1, Ontario TekSavvy members who subscribed to the 5Mbps plan have a new usage cap of 25GB, "substantially down from the 200GB or unlimited deals TekSavvy was able to offer before the CRTC's decision to impose usage based billing," the message added.
....
Bottom line: no more unlimited buffet. TekSavvy users who bought the "High Speed Internet Premium" plan at $31.95 now get 175GB less per month.
"Extensive web surfing, sharing music, video streaming, downloading and playing games, online shopping and email," could put users over the 25GB cap, TekSavvy warns. Also, watch out "power users that use multiple computers, smartphones, and game consoles at the same time."
You need "protection"
Here's the "good" news: TekSavvy users can now buy "insurance," defined as "a recurring subscription fee that provides you with additional monthly usage." For Ontario it's $4.75 for 40GB of additional data (sorry, but the unused data can't be forwarded to the next month).
There are also "usage vault" plans—payments made in advance for extra data. Consumers can buy vault data for $1.90/GB up to 300GB in any month. (Your limit of 300GB will cost you $570 !!!! Per MONTH --GG)
Where once TekSavvy consumers could purchase High Speed Internet Premium at a monthly base usage of 200GB for $31.95 a month, now they can get about half of that data (if they buy two units of insurance) at $41.45 a month.
...
"The ostensible, theoretical reason behind UBB is to conserve capacity, but that issue is very questionable," noted the ISP's CEO Rocky Gaudrault on TekSavvy's news page. "One certain result though, is that Bell will make much more profit on its Internet service, and discourage Canadians from watching TV and movies on the internet instead of CTV, which Bell now owns."
Starting on March 1, Ontario TekSavvy members who subscribed to the 5Mbps plan have a new usage cap of 25GB, "substantially down from the 200GB or unlimited deals TekSavvy was able to offer before the CRTC's decision to impose usage based billing," the message added.
....
Bottom line: no more unlimited buffet. TekSavvy users who bought the "High Speed Internet Premium" plan at $31.95 now get 175GB less per month.
"Extensive web surfing, sharing music, video streaming, downloading and playing games, online shopping and email," could put users over the 25GB cap, TekSavvy warns. Also, watch out "power users that use multiple computers, smartphones, and game consoles at the same time."
You need "protection"
Here's the "good" news: TekSavvy users can now buy "insurance," defined as "a recurring subscription fee that provides you with additional monthly usage." For Ontario it's $4.75 for 40GB of additional data (sorry, but the unused data can't be forwarded to the next month).
There are also "usage vault" plans—payments made in advance for extra data. Consumers can buy vault data for $1.90/GB up to 300GB in any month. (Your limit of 300GB will cost you $570 !!!! Per MONTH --GG)
Where once TekSavvy consumers could purchase High Speed Internet Premium at a monthly base usage of 200GB for $31.95 a month, now they can get about half of that data (if they buy two units of insurance) at $41.45 a month.
...
"The ostensible, theoretical reason behind UBB is to conserve capacity, but that issue is very questionable," noted the ISP's CEO Rocky Gaudrault on TekSavvy's news page. "One certain result though, is that Bell will make much more profit on its Internet service, and discourage Canadians from watching TV and movies on the internet instead of CTV, which Bell now owns."
This is what is coming to the US if US telecom carriers have their way. The latest ruling by the FCC has given Verizon and Google everything they wanted, but they are suing to gain even more. Quite bluntly, it is corporate America telling the government what it can and cannot do, Democracy be damned.
I was using local BBS in the late 1970s and in the early 1980's I switched to a long distance dialup CompuServe service until the local phone company, Alltel, began offering a dailup Internet connection. As the technology migrated from 1200bd to 2400 then 48K then 56K then 56K V.92 (PCM on both up and down traffic) I followed along, buying a new modem to take advantage of each improvement. The fees ranged from free (local calls to local BBS) to $10/m, $15/m, and $19/m. I barely got the V.92 warmed up when Alltel offered ADSL, which split the phone service into voice and data. IIRC, the data was 1Mb up and 128Kb down. It cost me $29.95/mo. When RoadRunner offered 5Mb/s internet on their cable, along with their TV, I jumped on. The price jumped up to $13 for basic cable and $35 for 5Mb/s Internet, or around $50 plus some taxes and fees. Later their costs climbed to $21/m for basic cable and $70/m for 10Mb/s Internet. When I canceled my RR contract I was paying $120/m for 124 channels of mostly infomercials plus 7Mb/s Internet speed. They finagled the speed down by claiming that the 10Mb/s was a "special offer" which expired and announced that what I was presently getting would cost $135/m. Now, RR is selling 10Mb/s for $35/m and "Turbo" (short duration 15Mb/s) for $45/m. Their TV "special" is $50/m. Their "bundled" deals are $129/m, $135/m and $175/m (4G). That's way too expensive, considering that France's Telecom "triple play" package costs $30 Euros for phone, TV and Internet.
In July of 2008 I canceled RR and signed on to Earthlink.net for a 12Mb/s connection for $72/m I just got the bill and I got a $200 rebate for overcharges for the last six months. This is the second time they've done that. So, as it stands, my effective rate is $51/m for 12Mb/m with NO CAPS. I can live with that.
But, I can tell you this. IF the US ISP's force rates up in this country (and on me) the way they did in Canada there is one choice I will easily take -- drop my Internet accounts, and began promoting the nationalization of the Internet. The Internet is no longer a luxury. With giant international corporations buying up and consolidating all traditional print, radio and TV news sources, a nearly free and totally UNFETTERED Internet is the only hope for Democracy in this country. The RICO Act, the PATRIOT Act, and the DHS have done more damage to the Constitution and personal liberty than the Taliban or radical Muslims ever did. Without an affordable, fast and uncapped connection the only news we'd get is the news the power brokers want us to hear, the way they want us to hear it. If WikiLeaks has proved anything it is that there is a WHOLE LOT of lying by our government to us and to our friends.
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