CRTC Allows Bell To Screw Canadian Internet Users
Remember when Bell started to throttle wholesale ISPs without telling them, and then went to the CRTC to get the right to implement usage based billing even if they didn’t get what they want. Well, in 88 days, Canadian DSL users will get usage based billing:
The federal regulator on Thursday gave Bell Canada the approval to implement so-called usage-based billing to wholesale customers — usually smaller internet service providers that rent portions of its network — within 90 days. Under the plan, Bell will charge wholesale service providers a flat monthly fee to connect to its network, and for a set monthly usage limit per each ISP customer the ISP has.
Beyond that set limit, users will be charged per gigabyte, depending on the speed of their connections. Customers using the fastest connections of five megabits per second, for example, will have a monthly allotment of 60 GB, beyond which Bell will charge $1.12 per GB to a maximum of $22.50.
If a customer uses more than 300 GB a month, Bell will also be able to implement an additional charge of 75 cents per gigabyte.
So it’s official. Canada not only has the highest cell phone rates, but they have the highest prices for Internet Access too. The big losers are the Canadian consumer as usual. So much for the CRTC protecting consumers. I guess that’s why Canadians want the CRTC abolished. Can’t say I don’t disagree. If you have Canadian telcos like Bell who screw consumers, and the CRTC protects them, what good are they. It makes you wish that there was real competition for telco services in Canada rather than the oligopoly that exists at the moment.
November 2, 2010 at 6:14 am
Bell’s Consumer complaints , abuses and their increase was so predictable
http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/consumer-complaints-abuses-and-their-increase-was-so-predictable/
January 12, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Just called the CRTC and left a message: 1-877-249-CRTC
Please note that they don’t have an email address or contact form on their website. You need to CALL or MAIL THEM A LETTER. How ridiculous is it that the government body tasked with regulating the internet is not even in touch enough to adequately use the MEDIUM THAT THEY REGULATE for interaction with their constituents? Go politics. That’s what you get from the government that appoints a Kinesiology major named Gary Goodyear as the Minister of Industry, Science and Technology (whose main pre-politics claim to fame was running a chiropractic clinic)…