I'm a Shaw customer and I'm really concerned with HOW UBB will be implemented on Feb 8, 2011 not so much that they ARE implementing UBB. Let me explain. I'm ok paying extra as I use a lot more "bandwidth" then the average user so I decided to opt for the Hi Speed Extreme package over the typical home users choice of Hi Speed or Hi Speed Lite. This gives me 100 GB vs 60 on vanilla Hi Speed. It also gives me a higher peak speed but I consider that of no value (while I might get 23 Mbps using a speed test I will never see that in real life and I'm lucky to get a sustained download of 1.2 Mbps).



Shaw proposes to issue 2 warnings to users that exceed their "cap" and then charge extra... $1/GB. Alternatively the user can opt for a package with a higher cap or can pre pay for data packs (similar to extra monthly minutes on a cell phone).



My concerns are many:



-while the average user may never exceed the typical monthly quota there is now an extra responsibility on the part of the user to insure that they do not exceed the limit. The fact is that typical users likely have no idea how to do this or really would want the burden that this extra responsibility now brings



-usage is determined by using counters on the cable modem in the home/office. These counters do not take into account traffic that is sent from the home that may never have arrived at the destination. If you understand how TCP windowing works you can see that a single dropped packet can have a HUGE impact on the amount of traffic that is required to be resent a second time or more. This is not taken into account but has a dramatic impact on how much "bandwidth" you are "using"



-the argument given by Shaw that the heavy users have a detrimental impact on other users on the shared infrastructure is utter nonsense. While it would take too long to explain here the fact is that a sustained rate of 1.2 Mbps download and 50 Kbps upload 7/24 for a full month would have ZERO impact on my neighbours. For the sake of argument let's accept this at face value. How does charging me for the extra "bandwidth" I'm consuming help my neighbours? What exactly do they do to my access or my neighbours to mitigate against this detrimental impact? Nothing. This is a cash grab pure and simple.



-how will I know when I'm about to exceed my limit and what can I then do about it? Will I get an email? I get a text from my cell phone provider telling me I'm running out of minutes on my plan so I sure hope I don't just find out that I've gone over my Internet usage limit when the bill shows up.



-the plans Shaw offer don't make any economic sense. As an example I pay about $47/month for 100 GB. The next plan up is $102/month for 150 GB! Basically a 100% increase for an additional 50% of "bandwidth". Would you not think the more you consumed the cheaper the unit price should be? Maybe someone needs to explain that to Shaw product marketing. Shaw's reply is that you also get a higher speed (50 Mbps for Warp or Nitro). Again I point out that this is a metric with zero value as that is not a number that can be achieved under normal use. You'd have to be getting all of your data from sites on Shaw's network and as we all know that is not likely. The Internet is global.



-the extra data packs that you can buy are also problematic as I see them. Using them requires you to pre pay for them. This not only means you need to have a full understanding of your past usage to determine what plan you should be on but now you also need to be able to predetermine you future data use as well in order to make sure to buy enough to cover the exceeding use. I don't think this is realistic for the typical user. Further more these extra GB data packs don't roll over to the next month. Paid $20 for an extra 60 GB but only used 10? Too bad, maybe you should have bought the 10 GB pack for $5 instead. Why could they not have developed a package that would allow me to automatically purchase the right pack at the right time? I go over my limit I get automatically billed $5 for the 1st 10 GB. Use 50 instead? No problem you just automatically got billed the $20 for the 60 GB pack.