You know competition is almost non-existent when one 'competitor' can decide what other competitors can and cannot do in the market.Just when Bell thought the controversy and bad publicity around it's company couldn't get any worse, it did. The CBC is reporting that Bell Canada is now going to put download limits on its own wholesalers. The report details a plan to cap people that have a connection speed of 512kb/s or slower to have a 2GB monthly limit with extra charges if users go over. For faster internet users who have connection speeds of about 5MB/s, that cap on a per user basis goes up to 60GB. While download caps have become more commonplace in some European countries, Australia and even the United States, download caps are, believe it or not, virtually unheard of in Canada. The report also highlights the response from the wholesalers who were obviously unhappy about the new move: Rocky Gaudreault, president of TekSavvy, said Bell's proposal was unacceptable because it would eliminate the last way in which the smaller wholesale ISPs can differentiate their services. Bell Canada has had a string of bad publicity and bad news already. Last month, Bell was seen fighting with Google over the infamous BitTorrent throttling controversy. Bell was also the first to be accused of invasion of privacy on it's own customers by CIPPIC. More recently, CIPPIC has issued similar complaints to other Canadian ISPs as well. More recently, Bell, along with Telus, was caught up in a major controversy over charging customers for incoming text messages - a move that landed Bell in hot water with the Canadian government. Perhaps the text messaging controversy was the last straw since Bell cut 2,500 management jobs a few days ago in an effort to slim down and save money. Much to the relief of many Canadians, the job cuts also included spokespersons Frank and Gordon, the Bell Canada beavers. To be fair, Bell Canada isn't the only one doing dirty deeds to it's own customers. Telus was also caught up in the incoming text messaging scheme that drew regulatory fire. Rogers have been throttling it's own customers for quite some time and the Deep Packet Inspection controversy includes all three of the major Canadian ISPs. Still, this fact obviously doesn't give Bell a get out of jail free card either. |
 
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Come forth my /b/rothers, together we shall attack Bell and do it for the lulz, Pedobear and Raptor Jesus.