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General: ISPs and Internet Usage in Canada
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest entry into the MMORPG.com Staff Blog, Canadian citizen and Managing Editor Jon Wood talks about impending legislation that would allow ISPs to charge users for usage. If that doesn't sound like it would take a 'byte' out of your wallet, nothing will. Check out Jon's thoughts. Don't think that just because it's Canada, it can't happen to you. Let us know your thoughts in the comments after the blog!
With all of that said though, I wanted to take a minute and address a concern that’s been growing here in my home country of Canada. It seems that the CRTC (a blessedly shortened name for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission), the branch of our government that regulates our entertainment, has given the green light to a proposal that would allow our cable companies, and more importantly our internet service providers, the right to charge per byte for internet usage... you know, the same way that the phone companies charge for 3G access.
Read more here.
Comments
Time Warner hinted at doing tiered/metered access in our area and there was such an uproar from the subscribers that they dropped it completely (for now.)
With the proliferation of movies, shows, games, etc all being available (quite legally these days), i think they see it as a way to make a buck. It costs nothing extra whether you transmit a byte or a terabyte. The infrastructure is there. If the ISP provides a good value for their service then they will increase subscribers -> more cash -> more infrastructure. You're not wearing out the network by transmitting more data. "But what about bandwidth!" Well, that's why your connection speed is capped. If the infrastructure can't handle it then they need to upgrade or lower the speed allotted to each person. End of story.
I think that is what will eventually occur. ISPs assume the majority of people won't use all of their bandwidth very often and thus oversubscribe their own capabilities of providing that same bandwidth. I think there will eventually be a compromise by the ISPs with reduced bandwidth claims and an increase in subscriber costs for the same.
It's still going to cost the subscriber more either way.
If you are Canadian, sign the petition at
http://openmedia.ca/meter
It's currently the largest and most signed online petition in Canadian history. Do your part and get your family and friends to help save the Internet too.
Here in australia we already have a GB usage on accounts and can pay a fortune for 25gb a month at decent speeds - I have 25gb a month at 16000 kps (upto 1.6mps download speeds) and the account ios worth $90 a month - i don't pay that much as i get discounts etc. but the 100+ gb accounts that i would really need are just too expensive. I really hope that they remove such limits from australia and never create them in Canada as it causes nothing but a pain in my behind and prevents me playing games as much as I would like...