Consumers Save Canadian Unlimited Broadband Something Almost Resembling Competition Springs Forth Yesterday we noted that as expected, the CRTC's ruling last year resulted in higher rates, with independent ISP Teksavvy unveiling new prices that for some users are up to 17% higher. The good news is that while Bell and other Canadian incumbents did get the authority to jack up prices on wholesalers (and by proxy consumers) they failed to get usage-based pricing imposed that would result in independents being unable to offer unlimited broadband tiers. As a result Teksavvy yesterday unveiled a number of unlimited broadband options for users, in addition to some interesting less-expensive value tiers. On the heels of TekSavvy's announcement Canadian independent ISP Electronic Box has also taken to our forums to highlight their new pricing for 2012. Like TekSavvy, Electric Box was forced to raise rates on some tiers because of the CTRC ruling. However, also like TekSavvy, Electric Box is offering users a number of new options that are cheaper than incumbent pricing. They're also offering new unlimited options for users tired of the low cap, high overage price gouging imposed by Canadian incumbents. The new pricing for cable customers (click to enlarge):



And here's the new pricing for DSL users:Yesterday's TekSavvy announcement noted that the company is now not running the meters for users on their 300 GB capped DSL plans between 2 AM and 8 AM. Electric Box is taking that idea further (thanks to fewer users and less network strain), saying they won't run the meters on any DSL customers between the hours of 2 AM and 12 PM. Some users will see lower rates, especially if they're making the shift from incumbent ISP to independent. Still, by and large, broadband prices continue to rise for all Canadians because of the cap and overage pricing model (that's precisely what it's designed for).While part of the story here is that the CRTC effectively allowed incumbents to jack up prices (already among the most expensive in the world according to OECD data ) for all Canadians, organized consumer outrage forced the CRTC to back off a Bell and Rogers plan for usage-based billing that would have prevented independent ISPs from offering differentiated product. As a result of Canadian consumer activism, consumers at least now have a variety of choices (most importantly unlimited) should they not like the often draconian pricing and network management practices of companies like Bell and Rogers.







News Jump Stark New Reality In The Telco Business: Dumb Pipes No Longer Cut It; AT&T Unveils Mix and Match Plans; + more news AT&T Extends Overage Charge Waiver; Verizon And T-Mobile Each Insist Their 5G Strategy Is The Right One; + more news War Of Words Heats Up: T-Mobile Fires Back At Verizon, AT&T; Amazon Intros Gaming Service To Take On Stadia; + more news Starlink's Network Faces Huge Limitations; AT&T Whines T-Mobile Merger Put Too Much Spectrum In One Place; + more news WISPs Get CBRS Range As Great As Six Miles At 100 Mbps Speeds; Windstream Officially Exits Bankruptcy; + more news Charter Relaunches Free 60-day Internet And Wi-Fi Offer; NCTA: FCC Should Stick With 25/3 Speed Threshold; + more news Comcast Shuts Off Internet for Subs Who Were Sold Service Illegally; AT&T, Verizon Team To Stop T-Mobile 5G; + more news California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed view:

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Chucks Truck

@teksavvy.com Chucks Truck Anon At least the third party isp's are in touch with reality Bell and Rogers live in some sort of dream world where bandwidth costs hundreds of times more than in the rest of the world.

houkouonchi

join:2002-07-22

Ontario, CA houkouonchi Member No way to get highest cable package without a cap? Kinda sucks that there isn't even an option to get the highest cable package without a cap? I get that it would cost more and what not but kinda sucks to not even have the option and basically be forced to use a slower line to avoid the caps.

Guspaz

Guspaz

MVM

join:2001-11-05

Montreal, QC Guspaz MVM Re: No way to get highest cable package without a cap? I believe diskace said that they wanted to see how things went before committing to that, so they could get a better idea of usage.



For Quebec cable, it's never been available with reasonable caps before, so there isn't really any data to base pricing on. They've never been able to offer any higher speeds with caps big enough to see what a heavy user would be like on those tiers.

adisor19

join:2004-10-11 adisor19 Member Re: No way to get highest cable package without a cap? said by Guspaz: For Quebec cable, it's never been available with reasonable caps before, so there isn't really any data to base pricing on. They've never been able to offer any higher speeds with caps big enough to see what a heavy user would be like on those tiers.





Adi Thats's false. Videotron had their old Extreme tier 10Mbps unlimited service a few years ago. I know as i was with them at the time. They then decided to impose a 100GB cap and i dumped them asap.Adi InvalidError

join:2008-02-03 InvalidError Member Re: No way to get highest cable package without a cap? said by adisor19: Thats's false. Videotron had their old Extreme tier 10Mbps unlimited service a few years ago. I know as i was with them at the time.



Even if they had offered it all those years ago, patterns from back then may no longer be representative of today's patterns... and those patterns may also change depending on speed. You seem to have missed the point that eBox IS NOT Videotron and as far as eBox is concerned, it has never happened so eBox currently has no internal basis to extrapolate what may happen from.Even if they had offered it all those years ago, patterns from back then may no longer be representative of today's patterns... and those patterns may also change depending on speed. Cloneman

join:2002-08-29

Montreal Cloneman Member official link? wheres the official Ebox page for videotron pricing? tmc8080

join:2004-04-24

Brooklyn, NY tmc8080 Member IF.. If Canada is anything like the UK (rhetorical), supply and demand will fix pricing..

sbrook

Mod

join:2001-12-14

Ottawa sbrook Mod Re: IF.. Canada's nothing like the UK. nauru

join:2011-02-02 nauru Member Re: IF.. said by sbrook: Canada's nothing like the UK.

Although we try really hard to be...

sbrook

Mod

join:2001-12-14

Ottawa sbrook Mod Re: IF.. Actually we try hard to be like the US and hard not to be like the UK. revelations

join:2011-05-02 revelations Member Loosing customers then they will learn I am with Bell now just for a year, I have a decent cap at half the price of top package, but assured at the end of my deal I will leave Bell,



It's nothing about the service nothing about the connection all have been great but cap space is my issue,



So for now I will wait but Bell will loose customer's the Internet has evolved but Bell and Rogers still think it is 1999



The clock is ticking Bell funny0

join:2010-12-22 1 edit funny0 Member Re: Loosing customers then they will learn i was with bell up to 2007 then they breached my contract...i went to TSI and had a max capacity of 1600 gb with 5 megabit that loses a whole megabit of speed for some reason no matter what they tell you....OR worse...anyhow....

OH in 1997 i had rogers cable

700kilobytes down and 400kilobytes up no caps...

oh and gone form 75$ a month to BCE to whatever tsi pays em and next month that might be zero as i leave TSI your comment..

