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CALGARY- Telus is introducing new charges for Internet customers who exceed their monthly data allowance, and those charges could lead to higher data bills for some, like heavy Netflix users.

Until now, Telus hasn’t charged customers who exceed their data limit, but the company says it’s been forced to reconsider. In the past 16 months, Telus says monthly Internet data usage has almost doubled, driven by a small group of heavy users who are using 25 per cent of the network data, according to the company’s website.

The new charges take effect March 30 for the B.C. interior, June for B.C.’s Lower Mainland and July for Alberta.

The company will automatically bill customers who breach their monthly plans, charging them $5 for the first 50 gigabytes of data that exceeds their limit. Subscribers will be charged $10 for every 50 GB “bucket” used above that to a monthly maximum of $75.

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Customers will be notified by email when they’ve reached 75 and 95 per cent of their data allowance.

Streaming and downloading video can eat up a big chunk of your data.

Scroll down to learn how you can change your Netflix data usage settings

Watching one hour of Netflix in high definition uses three GB an hour. If your plan allows for 100 GB a month, that means all of your data would be used by watching 33 hours of Netflix a month, or just under nine hours a week.

That doesn’t leave much space on average plans for other Web activity, such as sending and receiving emails, browsing, online shopping, video conferencing, downloading large files or playing games online.

Info graphic: How much data you use when watching Netflix

Telus data plans range from 30 GB a month for Telus Internet 1 to 500 GB for its Internet 100 plan.

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Shaw Communications has yet to announce similar charges for customers who exceed the limit of their plan but could eventually follow suit, according to some analysts.

Netflix users can adjust their data usage settings by logging in and clicking on Your Account. Look for My Profile and then click on Playback Settings, where you can chose one of four data usage settings.