Terrible Bandwidth Caps

[Alexville]

I laughed when Netflix finally comes to Canada and Rogers quickly downs the cap on the Lite and Extreme plans. 

"We understand that customers are using the Internet more and more every day. "We’ve therefore set our usage allowances at -very generous- levels"

Yea I'm sure 80GB for a package im paying >$60 for is very generous 😄

Something needs to change...

***edited labels***

[Patr1]

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@MichelR wrote:

I thought the maximum overage fee was $50?

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They jacked it to $50 around the time they severely lowered the 'allowances', last year some time I think.

[tpb3000]

i dont know if you this but Bell Canada has Bandwith insurance, this is how it works:  You choose a plan you want lets say a Preformance plan @ $39/Month with 25gb bandwith, then ask for the insurance and you can choose how much more bandwith you want, max is pay $15 xtra a month and get extra 120GB So it becomes 25GB+120GB and $54/ month

[jeffbriggs]

the bandwidth cap is  A JOKE!!!!!!
if you watch hd on netflix you;ll be over the limit in like 5 days!!!
im talking about a internet that costs 65$ a month, and has a sped of 24 mbits, and the cap is only 100 gigs?!?! thats insane?!?! whoever makes these rules must have no understanding of the internet.  I'ts just insulting, stop putting up with this crap rogers customers!

[poker191]

Rogers needs to get with the times. They are either ignorant about the needs of consumers when it comes to internet usage or are just out to gouge the consumer. More and more consumers are using netflix and more and more users are downloading games, streaming videos on youtube. All this uses alot more data usage that is currently allotted by the current caps. Rogers needs to adjust before they lose alot of customers to bells fiber op(too late) which does not have a cap on usage.

[Gdkitty]

poker191, please do a little research before posting information like on your last line.

http://www.bell.ca/Bell_Internet/Internet_access

As you can see, bell fiber, while having HIGHER caps that rogers, still does have caps on usage.

[FormerMember]

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@poker191 wrote:

Rogers needs to get with the times. They are either ignorant about the needs of consumers when it comes to internet usage or are just out to gouge the consumer. More and more consumers are using netflix and more and more users are downloading games, streaming videos on youtube. All this uses alot more data usage that is currently allotted by the current caps. Rogers needs to adjust before they lose alot of customers to bells fiber op(too late) which does not have a cap on usage.

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I think that both Rogers and Bell recognized a cash cow when they saw one! A few years ago, both companies provided unlimited bandwidth usage. But as you have suggested, with the advent of Netflix, Rogers own On Demand Online, streaming of videos and increased downloading, there was a profit to be made in this for the big telecoms! By limiting bandwidth usage, they either charge you more for going over your limit or they entice you to pay more for a higher tiered service with increased bandwidth usage. 

Gdkitty is 100% correct. Just check his link. Do you honestly think that if Bell was providing unlimited bandwidth, that Rogers would not follow suit? Bell was the first to initiate a bandwidth allowance. Who do you think followed suit! If you guess Rogers, you get a medal! Do you honestly not believe that there is collusion in the industry? 

[Gdkitty]

Only a few of the 3rd party providers currently provide unlimited.. often for slightly more $ than the equiv bell/rogers, at the same download speed.

But these are often limited sometimes on the areas that they do cover.. and they also rent the lines from Bell or rogers, so if you have a general service/outage issue due to lines, etc in your area, switching to them may not fix your problem.

[joeyjeremiah]

Bell Aliant offers unlimited bandwidth caps with their FibreOP internet in Atlantic Canada.

[upsdriver9]

Wow Bell just added as of today the Unlimited Internet Usage, no more Caps on their internet, for just $10.00 more a month you can get unlimited usage.. no caps this is GREAT!!! when is Rogers going to get on board with the same??

[Gdkitty]

We can only hope they do!

Though, i did read into it a little more
Its only that price, if you have 3 services with them, $30 otherwise. (and really, its $30 with a 20 credit, with 3 services.. i worry that credit will disapear at some point :P).

So may depend on what you have.

But hopefuly its a move in the right direction.. them doing it, in the long run will HOPEFULY force the change here as well.

[upsdriver9]

Well i would think that most people on Bell will have all 3 services, I know I do! and it makes alot of sense I would rather pay $10 dollars extra a month and be able to surf the net anytime with no worries of going over my bandwith, this is a great step ahead for bell users, of course some rogers users will think differently... but better then paying what rogers is charging for a cap...

[Gdkitty]

No argument that its a good move on their part 🙂
and i hope rogers follows along.

This seems to be more along the lines of others who have unlimited plans (techsavvy, etc).. X amount for regular plan, or a little more for same speeds, but unlimited cap.

ME, it wouldnt really effect me, as i never go anywhere near my cap as it is.. but like you said, its nice to know that if there is no cap, your not always having that thought in your mind 'will i go over?'

[upsdriver9]

Thats just it Gdkitty,

It's the peace of mind of not worrying if you are anywhere close getting over your bandwith cap or not, I can actually now watch more movies online and surf all i want without having to worry about it, and honestly for $10 more then what I was paying its really worth it. when mentioned earlier about most people having 3 services with a provider, that would be with any provider, to me it always made more sense to have everything together with one company, this way it eliminates more bills from other companies and you are at a better chance with bundles then if you were to be with them spread out with everyone else.. It makes more sense to have it all in one place.. Rogers should jump on this cause you know paying $225.00 for 500GB just does not cut.. unless your a business and you can afford it... hehehehe

[Chris]

It di really suck last monh when I had house guests for the month and half way hrough the month 100GB of the 120GB were already gone.. We had to stop netflix all together and make sure no one downloaded anything (ie updating their OS or the TomTom app on their iPads and iPhones...) Very embarrassing having to tell my guests to stop using the internet for anything other then web browsing and emails.

[Gdkitty]

Yeah..  like i said, i totaly agree that they SHOULD be matching this, in some way or form..
People leaving rogers to go to a 3rd party unlimited.. hit and miss, some people like the security of a biger company.. but if bell is providing this then, you are likely to see more.   They really need to match it in some form or will loose out alot.

Now, timeframe may be the question.  Many people will thing that "oh company X just announced this, rogers needs to do the same TODAY".. its probably not that simple, going through all the upper channels/management, implementation, setup for billing of it, etc... it may take a bit before its implemented.

@chris:  While i know its not as hospitible to guests.. i set up a 'guest' network for them, just for that reason.  I had my cousin over for a week, and he ate my usage up.. torrenting, etc.. and actualy i got a letter from rogers, that whatever company was monitoring that torrent of their product and reported me.  It just wasnt worth it... so set up the guest network.. gives them net access, i think it allows email, etc as well.. but thats about it.. most other forms of access, it blocks, just to be safe.

if rogers did an unlimited, i wouldnt be as much of an issue (though.. i guess content of those downloads, you still have to watch :P)

[Chris]

Really the embarrassing part was they come from a place in the world where there is no bandwidth caps so they had never even thought of it. Explaining that I pay a ton for a little was the embarrassing part.

[upsdriver9]

Yeah, when I got the email from Bell regarding the unlimited Internet Usage, I was like right on top of it, I called them right away and the CSR added the unlimited to my account right away, I figured for an extra $10 a month it is all worth the money.. Now we can have netflix hooked up to the HD TV and watch movies there instead of having to pay for extra movie channels.. this unlimited usage has been long overdue.. I am Glad that they did this.. and your right it will take Rogers time to implement this, but im sure if they want to keep the customers from moving on, they will have to jump ship..Customers are not going to stay with someone when they are capping their internet, this has been an ongoing thing, thats why customers left to go with 3rd party providers for the unlimited usage...

Im a happy camper...

[_0101_]

All due respect Erin, that is not a solution.  You are implying that you know Rogers caps are too small, and telling us to manage our usage ourselves by watching less content.  Now I open my latest bill and monthly rates are going up $3 again!?

I started a thread months ago about data caps and speed and giving the customer a choice of which they prefer: faster speed or more data.  Can you please confirm that Rogers at least acknowledged my message and is considering the issue?  I rented the newer DOCSIS gateway in order to get the "free" data upgrade to 80gb when the speeds were upgraded last fall.  Please, if Rogers needs to increase rates again, at least offer us options of speed vs data caps.

[bio_vital]

It's not just Rogers, it's North America, Canada is the worst.  There simply needs to be more big company competiton.  Look at European internet plans..they destroy us.  The basic plan in most European countries is 100Mbps download/100Mbps upload and unlimited bandwidth for $50 a month.

It's insane how badly we get ripped off over here.

[MidnightTide]

Simply isn't economically justified to have the caps that we do.

They are doing it purely out of greed - that and likely they have a few key people in their pockets.  But I am hearing a lot about he Bell unlimited, I am hearing their techs are working 7 days a week they are so busy.

[Bakeman]

I'd say bandwidth caps are here to stay. I used to troubleshoot for Comcast. Even they have caps, 250 gig a month. (may have changed in the last 5 months or so but it was that last year). And with them, unlike Rogers, they didn't charge you for going over, if they saw you were going over, you would get an email, if you kept it up, they would simply cancel your account after a number of warnings.

Bakeman