Canada bringing in data caps

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lokhor

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#76358 1-Feb-2011 13:14

Check out this article:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/canada-gets-first-bitter-dose-of-metered-internet-billing.ars?comments=1#comments-bar

Sounds worse than internet plans here!

All comments are my own opinion, and not that of my employer unless explicitly stated.

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#433693 1-Feb-2011 14:22

It had to happen, we have had caps for such a long time that when the rest of the world bring them in we will be way up there...

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michaeln

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#433695 1-Feb-2011 14:31

It is worse than the plans here, at least for overage.

C$1.90/GB is NZ$2.46/GB (at today's FOREX rate) which compares unfavorably to, for example, TCL's $1.48/GB overage (167%). Especially bearing in mind that NZ has to bear the very real costs of that expensive piece of wet string known as Southern Cross, whereas Canada, I would have thought, should have much lower infrastructure costs.

freitasm

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#433698 1-Feb-2011 14:40

Canada always had very expensive data. Mobile data can be a lot more expensive there than here.

l43a2

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#433700 1-Feb-2011 14:43

wow, thats crazy, Canada is going backwards..

freitasm

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#433703 1-Feb-2011 14:49

Actually, not only Canada. In the US a few cable companies are now working on a 500GB cap. More than here, but a cap nonetheless.

etl

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#433704 1-Feb-2011 14:49

has canada gone in any other direction?

etl

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#433706 1-Feb-2011 14:50

500gb oh no, I dont know how any one can bear the pain.
I bet DirectDownloads is responsible for this new movement.

freitasm

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#433707 1-Feb-2011 14:52

For those who don't know the history, read "The poison from New Zealand".

valtam

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#433708 1-Feb-2011 14:52

What percentage of US traffic is internal? Hasn't this been the very reason why there was no need for caps in the first place?

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NonprayingMantis

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#433709 1-Feb-2011 14:53

etl: 500gb oh no, I dont know how any one can bear the pain.
I bet DirectDownloads is responsible for this new movement.

thin end of the wedge IMO

They start them high so that people won't feel too much pain moving from unlimited to capped, but then they gradually reduce the caps so they can get the largest amoutn of price discrimination.

sbiddle

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#433712 1-Feb-2011 15:00

My understanding is that with a few exceptions Canada has always had data caps and billed for usage. They have certainly beed grouped in with NZ in the past when people have discussed the issue.

mikenzb

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#433730 1-Feb-2011 15:43

I feel Sorry for them.

lokhor

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#433732 1-Feb-2011 15:46

I can fully understand having data caps, especially here in NZ however I wish they were a little more generous.

All comments are my own opinion, and not that of my employer unless explicitly stated.

Talkiet

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#433746 1-Feb-2011 16:04

l43a2: wow, thats crazy, Canada is going backwards..

If by backwards, you mean towards a pricing model that reflects the cost model and attempts to reconcile the phenomenal difference between heavy and light users without hugely loading the pricing for light users then yes, I agree, Canada is going backwards.

N :-)

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Ragnor

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#433754 1-Feb-2011 16:17

Talkiet:
l43a2: wow, thats crazy, Canada is going backwards..

If by backwards, you mean towards a pricing model that reflects the cost model and attempts to reconcile the phenomenal difference between heavy and light users without hugely loading the pricing for light users then yes, I agree, Canada is going backwards.

N :-)

While I do feel you have a point about light users subsidising heavy users, I doubt you will see reduced prices for light users..

This seems to be about (in the US anyway) increasing prices for heavy users to a level that hampers use of disruptive services like Netflix (see recent Comcast v Level 3 peering disputes).

The general aim being to preserve legacy content based business for cable companies (Comcast, Time Warner or in Canada: Rodgers etc).

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