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Telus slashing internet usage caps

telus

Bad news for Canadian internet users again as Telus is significantly lowering data caps out west. As an unhappy customer explains on DSL Reports, the company is chopping usage on its fastest-speed High Speed Turbo 25 service in half, from 500 gigabytes per month to 250 GB. The High Speed and High Speed Turbo services are also taking big cuts, to 100 GB from 150 GB and 150 GB from 250 GB, respectively.

As the customer points out, subscribers to that fastest tier will be getting half the usage for the same price when these cuts take effect in February - with no explanation from the company, to boot.

I inquired with Telus and here’s the spokesperson’s full response:

Even with this change our thresholds remain the most generous in Canada. Thresholds of this sort are standard in the industry, and ours are far more generous than those of most other Canadian ISPs, in many cases more than twice as high. With this change TELUS offers a number of simple internet plans from $24 to $60 a month with speeds up to 25 MBPS and thresholds as high as a huge 400 GB a month. Our most popular mid-range plan TELUS 15, will give you up to 15 MBPS and 150 Gigs, more than enough for all but the heaviest users.

Since 2000, TELUS has invested more than $30 billion to bring Canadians some of the most advanced wireless and wireline broadband networks in the world. We have made significant investments in our network so that our customers can get the services that they want within their standard plan. In large part because of this investment our basic service is half the price of what broadband internet service first cost when it was launched 10 years ago, and our thresholds the most generous in the country. In the last few years, rates have remained about the same while the speeds and thresholds have dramatically increased, which has allowed customers to use increasingly data-heavy services, such as video streaming off the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on December 5, 2012 in internet, shaw, telus

 

Wi-fi usage expected to double in 2013

I was wondering the other day just how many things in my house I had hooked up to wi-fi, so I took a quick count. It turns out I’ve got about 15 devices - game consoles, computers, tablets, phones - that are in regular use, with another five or so (e-readers, iPods et al) that periodically connect. If wi-fi really does make you sick, like some misinformed parents claimed a while back, then my head should be about ready to explode.

More to the point, I couldn’t help but think about how my poor little router is able to handle all that traffic. Truth be told, I’ve had some issues over the past few months, with my internet connection periodically experiencing hiccups. I tracked at least one of these down to a bizarre, seemingly unique issue - as in I couldn’t find anyone else online who had experienced it - with Apple’s iCloud, which killed my whole connection. The issue was magically solved when I turned the service off. Some of the other mild problems doubtlessly came from my internet provider.

The router, meanwhile, has been soldiering on. But, given that it’s a few years old, I expect it to give out at any time, which is why I’ve got a backup ready to go, just in case. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on November 29, 2012 in CES, internet

 

Rogers says new internet speeds are indeed new

Jose Reyes is undoubtedly the new shortstop for the Rogers’ owned Blue Jays.
But are Rogers’ new internet services really new?

In the latest internet access stoush before the CRTC, Rogers has fired back against independent internet service provider customers looking to get at its faster speeds. The small companies recently registered a complaint with the regulator, saying the cable provider has introduced new, faster speeds for its own customers at no extra cost. According to wholesale speed-matching rules, they say Rogers is thus required to do the same for the indie ISPs who use parts of its network to provide their own services.

As I wrote last week, the Canadian Network Operators Consortium - a group of small ISPs - say that Rogers’ new speed boosts are not really new, they’re just the same products with faster speeds. The cable company’s short-answer reply via the CRTC is: just because they have the same names as the old products doesn’t mean they aren’t new.

The longer answer has to do with mind-numbing details as to whether the services are counted as aggregated or disaggregated, which are different ways of setting up network infrastructures and counting traffic. Small ISPs say it’s considerably more expensive to use the aggregated approach and as such are also fighting the pricing model before the CRTC. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on November 20, 2012 in crtc, internet, rogers

 

Indie ISPs cry foul over Rogers’ speed boosts

Super high-speed internet? Maybe not if you’re with an indie ISP.

After a period of relative public calm, the internet access wars are ratcheting up once again with the CRTC being asked to intervene in a dispute between independent service providers and Rogers.

This time it’s the Canadian Network Operators Consortium, an affiliation of indie ISPs, accusing Rogers of trying to unfairly charge more for higher-speed services. CNOC says Rogers recently boosted download and upload speeds for its own retail customers without any price increases, a move that is supposed to automatically result in those same speeds being made available to independent ISPs who use parts of its network. CNOC says Rogers is offering its members those higher speeds, but only at an additional cost. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on November 13, 2012 in crtc, internet, rogers

 

Kim Dotcom: a modern-day Robin Hood?

Kim Dotcom’s latest venture: undersea broadband cables?

Last week was a good week for modern-day Robin Hoods, with a pair of very wealthy individuals announcing major philanthropic endeavours.

There was the whopping news from George Lucas, who said he will donate to charity most of the $4 billion he’s making from the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney. The money will go toward education, which is one of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ pet causes. If you’ve seen the Oscar-nominated documentary Waiting For Superman, you’re probably aware of just how badly the U.S. education system needs such funding.

References to Lucas as a Robin Hood are made in jest, of course. Much of his existing fortune is well earned, since he’s given the English-speaking world one of its most profound cultural touchstones. The nerds who loved Star Wars, however, can be forgiven for feeling like Lucas has spent the better part of the past decade taking advantage of them, what with the prequel trilogy and his constant tinkering with the original movies. As some people joked on Twitter, the big donation just about makes up for Jar Jar Binks.

The Robin Hood appellation is probably more appropriate in the case of Kim Dotcom, the uber-rich internet entrepreneur who, as far as the copyright cops are concerned, is public enemy number one. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on November 5, 2012 in internet, new zealand, piracy

 
 
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