Canadian online gamers, Steam and X-Box live users are going to get screwed...

[Zer_]

While I'd say that I don't like the change, the OP makes a fundamental mistake in a key presumption supporting the argument against it: that bandwidth is an unlimited resource. While this resource is extensible (it can grow with additional infrastructure development), at any particular moment there is a total maximum amount of data the network structure in any location can handle.

Yes, but ISPs are creating what is called artificial scarcity. Canada's internet infrastructure is superior to many of the United States areas. At least that's the case on the east coast.

This has been going on here in Quebec for a while. It is indeed utter bullshit, and yes people need to speak up about it.

Recently a body of the Canadian government approved "Usage Based Billing" - basically defining online data as something it's not - a finite resource. This was ruling was done in favour of Canadian internet service providers who now get to put a cap on the amount of data consumers can use each month - you go over that cap, you get charged somewhere around $2/GB.

This is nothing new. ISP's have been doing this since they were created. Now they just have a justification for it.

It's really not that big of a deal. You probably already have one, and just didn't realize it. Actually, you almost definitely had one, since if you live in Canada, your Internet is either coming from Bell or Rogers (or somebody they resell to,) and both of those companies have caps on all (or almost all) of their plans.

My limit has been 60GB/month for at least 5 years. In that time, I've gone over once, when I got a new PC and had to re-download all my steam games. It wasn't even the gameplay that set me over, and it never will. Gameplay takes up a tiny amount of bandwidth.

Edit: Oh, and even when I did go over, I went over on the last day of the month, so it didn't make a difference anyway. Even after downloading 15-ish games at the start of the month, I still had enough bandwidth left to play games and use the internet for an entire month.

15 games under 60GB? What, are you downloading games from the mid-90s?

Digital distribution is being heralded as the future, and yet ISPs are so hell bent on milking as much money from their customers that they can. There will be a clash, and I know the users will end up on top eventually. What I'm afraid of is how ugly it could get from now and then... sigh.

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

We already have capped internet down here, and yes it is awful and it does limit your internet usage massively. In fact we have it even worse because we also literally have the slowest average connections on the planet. Yay capitalism.

 

[antofdeath]

Riddlen xD I was pretty much just neutral towards this and trying to get more information.

I pay like less then 60$ a month for phone tv and internet of at least 500kb/s per computer (we have done 3.5gb/s of random data one day don't ask why i have that many computer) and generally shaw takes care of us because they have honest competition.

So I get the feeling that maybe we should have better laws against monopoly tactics then ya know bothering about the fact that someone is giving a company potential to expand >.> just saying.

Fret not American consumers! Google comes to save the day with at least partially legit business. Googles business practices are rather similar to quiet a few Canadian companies, so one day you might actually see the end of price fixing on more then products that google puts their hands into xD

Beyond that Satire/ramble though. Does anyone maybe want to poke into elaborating abit more about how exactly this could be a problem long term except for the simple fact that 20$/gb now is going to be ridiculous 10 years from now when a GB is worth 0.001$ in hard drive space? Because that is mostly my largest concern.

 

[JdA]

Bell has already tagged me for this on several occasions. My last semester of school I was running an FTP site with an architectural design project, sharing some pretty huge files with my project teammates. They charged me for exceeding bandwidth on my October, November, and December bills. Shaw is in NO way the only company utilizing this billing approach.

 

[Bihac]

Tragically, it's pretty common in NZ, which is where I'm living at the moment. So limited to 40 Gigs a month (which is the highest any plan will offer), and then 2 dollars per gig over that.

Which means I generally don't get to play games online as much as I'd like, especially as the bandwidth is shared with 3 other people.

 

[Something Amyss]

Well lets hope this doesn't happen in the states

We already have bandwidth caps. The two largest cab;e companies and a lot of the smaller ones have them. I've been told Fios doesn't have it, so now I only need to wait for Verizon to make my dreams a reality.

Of course FiOS won't have it, because they will do everything necessary to get people to switch to it. Including raising the price of Cable internet.

When companies not providing such service are also increasing the price of cable internet independently, I'd say we can relegate this thought to "conspiracy theory."

 

[veloper]

Surprising how this required a government ruling in Canada.

A business can charge any amount of money. Competition is what keeps the price down.

 

[MercurySteam]

Wait, you guys didn't already have this? I thought it was just the norm... (Australian here)

I don't know about you but when I exceed my limit I get pushed back to shaping speed (basically dial-up speed) at no extra charge.

 

[Zer_]

Surprising how this required a government ruling in Canada.

A business can charge any amount of money. Competition is what keeps the price down.

There are laws to prevent price fixing in Canada. For example, pharmacuticles are much cheaper here in Canada than they are in the United States, because it's illegal to go over a certain price.

But yes, it is strange that there is government intervention in this. This is probably just some PR stunt for "anti-piracy" or some bullshit reason.

 

[markisb]

all of you is lucky i live in new zealand. im only 16 and my parents pay for the net but i think the bill is around 50+ NZD for the internet and we only have a 10gb data cap for a whole month. its enough... barely but i cant use things like steam because its not practical for me. not to mention the fact if i go over the data cap its 5kbs up and down speeds for the rest of the month.

PS: $2 a gb is damn cheap.

 

[Nibish]

I might have gotten this wrong, but all the countries mentioned don't have unlimited internet? I find that fascinating and a bit weird. I have 8192/512 kbps unlimited and I pay around 160kuna (currency of Croatia, where I live), including a cable TV with around 50 channels. That would be around 30$USD. And Croatia has around 4,5 million people. I always thought bigger and richer countries would have no problems providing unlimited internet. Oh, except Australia, their government seems to dislike anything that has to do with gaming.

 

[Mekado]

huh i thought every major ISP here already had a quota, we have thoses for at least 3 years in Quebec (at least from Bell/Rogers/Videotron, some smaller isp's still have unlimited plans though)

 

[Sad Face]

The link where the guy explains it beautifully doesn't work.

I have to use a lot of internet every day for school so unfortunately that would have to take priority. But I'll be exploring this more before I panic over it.

 

[Exort]

Canada, and US already have the worst ISP in the world (cost to speed ratio). Now they want more? (Will they lower the based cost?)

 

[Wolfram23]

Hmm... I don't know I've been with Shaw for a long time now and never been overcharged with all my Steam downloads, online gaming, and other large... downloads.

Unless we're talking about mobile... which already limites phone usage which obviously doesn't make sense (limited daytime but unlimited evening/weekends???)

 

[Zer_]

Really this wont effect most of us at all. Internet providers have been doing this in Canada for well over 15 years. It used to be hours/month and then it changed to a bandwidth limit. You can still however get unlimited internet packages like what I have and it wont change. I just set up the internet at my sisters new house and there was multiple different packages to choose from ranging from 30gb-60gb per month or unlimited.

Not true, there are no unlimited packages from any of the major providers in this area, and that's the problem... And that's what this we are trying to avoid. I have no problem paying a reasonable premium for unlimited, but it's not there!

 

[Baby Tea]

Bell, Rogers, Cogeco all have caps in place for high speed internet, with tiered plans varying the price / bandwidth.

The old days of unlimited bandwidth are over.

But this is hardly new.
I got Rogers Internet when I first moved almost 3 years ago, and they had this in place then.
Personally do I think it's stupid? Yes.
Am I all in a fuss over it? No. I don't ever come close to hitting my cap, and I download crap all the time, plus play on XBL, I play EVE Online regularly, and my wife uploads pictures to Facebook like it's going out of style.

So, 'meh'. As long as they keep the caps reasonable, then I'm fine with it.
Since I'm really, then, only paying for the speed of the 'net, and not how much I use.

 

[baseracer]

Oh yay, lobbying. I hate lobbying. It's just a nice word for bribing, and it should be made illegal.