Canada Gets Metered Internet

Canada approved usage billing on ISP plans. Here we go...

[Lapizuli]

To put it mildly, this could be a problem for Canadians in business, and if other countries follow suit...ouch.

[arstechnica.com...]

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...

Here's the "good" news: TekSavvy users can now buy "insurance," defined as "a recurring subscription fee that provides you with additional monthly usage."

[votrechien]

The current government, the Conservatives lead by Stephen Harper, have said they will kill this proposal regardless (great way to get votes- he just swayed my opinion of the conservatives).

There's two problems here:

1) The market, not the government, should determine the viability of tiered internet.

2) Canada prides itself on being an economy, at least partially, that is fueled by it's high-tech sector. Imposing regulations that will provide impediments to accessing the internet, the backbone of a high-tech society, can only have negative consquences.

[Rugles]

(great way to get votes- he just swayed my opinion of the conservatives).

Oh man. Voting on a single issue is a lousy way to vote. I realize it is your ballot and all .. and you live in a democracy. But I would advise against being that easily swayed.

I remember way back in the early 80's a certain Provincial politician was talking about loosening our admittedly Victorian liquor laws to allow beer to be sold in corner stores. I knew that several of my beer drinking friends that voted for the first and only time in their lives, based only on that single issue. Well, it never happened and they were very disappointed and dishearted with politics. Shocking!

My point. After the election is over... prepare to be disappointed. Because the Telcos and Cable companies will be screaming bloody murder when they have to invest billions more so that we can all download cheap movies.

We will pay for this one way or another. I say let the bandwidth hogs pay for it!

[lgn1]

I think what got most people upset, was that Rogers actually dropped the bandwidth cap.

Fortunately in Atlantic Canada, they have Bell Aliant, which never integrated with Bell, and we have no bandwidth cap, but I hear rumors that they may send you a notice to cut back if you go over 250Gb a month.

This is a good thing. Due to the miracle of virtual credit cards, VPN, dd-wrt routers, and a WD digital media streamer, I have bypass all this Geo-discrimination crap, and can get the American Netflix and Hulu on my TV here in Canada.

Although, I don't watch that many movies, it great to have a huge selection of movies, and practically every TV show ever made, available on demand. With bell expressvu charging $7 a movie, the netflix and VPN pays for itself if I just watch 3 movies a month.

[jeyKay]

If your in Canada, boycott Bell.

[Petrogold]

While South Korea is offering 100 PC of its population the high speed broad band internet Canadian Government tries to impede its public to use internet with limiting the use. This is very sad for the country & its economy. Even President Obama in his recent State of Union address emphasized the urgent need of fascinating the whole nation with the high speed internet for better ecommerce & promoting the national exports online. Why Canadian Govt. cannot understand the value of internet in national life?