Bell Canada to Cap Competition to as Low as 2GB a Month Down Per User

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.

“This is very much making us little more than a reseller,” he said. “We would become mini-Sympaticos.”

Louro told CBCNews.ca the repercussions would be even greater because some of the smaller ISPs are getting big enough to start installing their own equipment in Bell’s telecommunications offices, which will allow them to offer not only super-fast broadband but also internet-based television. Such a service, known as Internet Protocol Television or IPTV, would require much more capacity than the proposed 60 GB limit and would compete directly with Bell’s own ExpressVu satellite television offering.

“It seems like a way to limit our growth so this won’t happen,” he said. “No ISP at this point can offer IPTV — you’re looking at hundreds of gigs, not 60.”

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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