Rogers drops limit on broadband subscription packages like its Lite service from 25GB to 15GB with $4 per GB in overage fees.
Rogers, Canada’s second largest ISP after Bell Internet, has decreased the monthly data limits of its broadband subscribers, in some case by as much as 60%
Those who sign up for Internet service after July 21st will face, in the case of its Lite service, a drop from 25GB to 15GB p/mo or in the case of its Extreme service, a drop from 90GB to 80GB p/mo. Those who signed up before July 21st are exempt from the changes.
What is likely to make costumers particularly is the rise in overage fees from $2.5 ($2.42 US) per GB to $4 ($3.9 US) per GB! Accidentally downloading a DVD-R copy of a game or movie could set you back as much as $16.
“It’s a good way to make more money from overage fees,” John Lawford, a lawyer for the consumer watchdog group Public Interest Advocacy Centre, told The Star. “It’s driving people to higher-limit packages, which are faster but more expensive. So, if you want to use the Internet in the video-streaming kind of way, (Rogers) is going to make you pay more, especially now.”
That’s where the plan really hurts consumers’ pocketbooks. As people stream more and more content online it’ll become easier and easier to surpass your monthly data limit.
Rogers insists that new data caps “reflect the changing nature of customer’s online behavior” and that it allows those “with higher demands the option to choose more speed or bandwidth while ensuring those whose needs are not as great to have lower priced tiers.”
But, at $36 ($35 US) bucks more month it’s hardly doing anybody any favors. For that much p/mo one ought to get at least the 25GB p/mo that customers were getting prior to the change in policy. It seems to hint at a possibly disturbing new trend whereby ISPs, enjoying virtual regional monopolies, can raise prices and lower data caps at whim, maximizing profits with no concern for its subscribers.
Stay tuned.
It seems slow, but if it’s the cheapest service, then it could be good for people who don’t really use their computer.
Still the ad shows things like how many movies, songs, and large pictures you can move. It seems good, but what about all of the other things your computer does, like program updates and when you watch streaming videos. 3 megabits a second is made for sites like Ytube.
It’s like banks with their ‘debit card protection’, it’s just going to hurt poor people!
Rogers have let me know personally that they have way too many customers and that would I please sign up with some other company.
Why would someone want a service with data capping anyways? They trick you into a long term contract then up the price so that they afford the fees to sue you in the courts of the land for file sharing.
That sucks. My ISP will just worn you if you go over your ussage. If you contuin to go over your limit it will movie you a higher package.
a perfect argument for more competition in communication industry. $4 a gig is just gouging. I’m beginning to think an angry mob with burning torches and pitchforks would be a more successful deterrent to these companies doing whatever the hell they please. When services become a necessity, regulation should be demanded when no competition is present.
BlockBuster dropped their rate ,, 9.99 a month or something lol
BTW, brilliant idea on using the snail sign. The image of a snail was part of a Rogers ad campaign a year or two ago. Now that snail might come back to haunt them.
I can store it for cheaper – 4G for 20 cents on a DVD, on a hard drive for about 40 cents, and $4 for bits on the ether, maybe 1 cent per gig on delivery is reasonable, more than they are making now.
Netflix coming to Canada via streaming. Then these ISPs lower their caps. Rogers owns video rental stores. Some people think that’s not a coincidence.