Canada, Throttling and UBB

It's no lie, Canadians pay one of the highest Internet rates around the world, and the amount of Internet we get back is peanuts compared to other countries. I'm sick and tired of this whole thing to be quite honest.

I recently thought it would be a good idea to do a Speed Test to check that I'm getting what I pay for. Here's the result.

So 2.02MB/s of Download, 0.39MB/s of Upload and Slower than 81% of Canada. Wow. I'm lost for words.
These speeds are utterly disgusting. Now I'm not putting the blame on TekSavvy, since they rent their Internet lines off Bell Canada.

Before I get into this rant, I just wanted to plug OpenMedia.ca and VoteNet.ca for all their hard work in covering the Canadian news and dogging these Telecom companies to stop gouging us. You guys are the true heroes when it comes to fighting the good fight. Keep it up.

Guess what? Shaw Internet is going full steam ahead with its Usage Based Billing, despite the Half-Million Canadians against this form of gouging!

Shaw: Yeah! We have Pricing Power. Let's go gouge us some Canadians!

Alright! It's rant time!

Let it be known that Bell/Rogers has a known history to both Price Gouge consumers for lowering their bandwidth caps and making their cost even higher. Also they are known for two other notable features, they throttle their speeds to users who Torrent (The new way to download, since Peer-to-Peer isn't the cool thing anymore) and they have a bad habit of hiring customer service agents who are there to stone-wall any concerns with your bill, and tell you, "It's your fault, go away *click*".

So whats the problem? The problem is that Bell and Rogers have the mentality of, "We're too big of a business to care about our consumers anymore! It's all about the shareholders and raising our dividends and profits for the next quarter!" Even Rick Mercer is hitting the nail on the head how our Internet companies are consistent for screwing us over.

Now Bell thought it would be a wonderful idea to take the gouging one step further. To impose Usage Based Billing (UBB) on the Canadian consumer market, and the funny thing is, our government organization, the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) actually gave Bell and Rogers the green light to actually impose this new billing onto consumers as early as mid-2011 with a base rate plus an extra $3-5 dollars for each Gigabyte used in your month.


On paper, pricing consumers based on how much they use is a great idea, but when it comes to prices like these, consumers just cannot afford it. This is really killing innovation within the Canadian market. Paying a high base rate for a low bandwidth cap then +$3-5 bucks per each Gigabyte over? That's going to add up quick and kill internet based companies like NetFlix really quickly. But I guess going back to our $25-$40 bucks a month Cable/Satalite box is cheaper than using $8 bucks a month Netflix right? ...right?


You know, I'm so sick and tired of the same old, "Yeah, We're Bell and we're reducing your Internet limits and charging you more because you don't know whats good for you!" mentality. Here's a couple videos you should just watch to help clear things up for the average user.

"Lang and O'Leary Exchange - Interview with Bell then with TekSavvy"

"Stop the Meter on your Internet Use"

"Canada's worst Cell Phone Bill" - This guy gets charged $17,000 for his Cell

I'll continue on this issue in one of my next articles in the future, but this is just the tip of the Iceberg with Canada's corrupt Tele-communication industry.

How much do you guys pay for your Internet and/or your Cell Phones every month? Do you think the price is right? Leave a comment and tell me.

Get informed, read more about Usage Based Billing and how Canadians are standing up against it with OpenMedia.ca