The long-term implications are clear for all Internet users of all ISPs, large and small: Rate caps will become much smaller and more visible, your bills will rise over the longer-term, and you’ll have to learn to monitor your usage more closely to avoid surprises at the end of the month.īeyond higher bills and more restrictive access, the decision affects the ability of smaller ISPs to differentiate themselves in the market. TekSavvy, for example, is cutting users down from unlimited and 250Gb packages to 25Gb, or 60Gb in Quebec.Īlthough major ISPs had already transitioned most of their own customers away from unlimited plans, the latest CRTC decision will, if it stands, also lead to more restrictive rate plans and higher bills for equivalent use. In the last week, many of them have advised their remaining unlimited plan and high-usage customers that they’re being converted over to usage-limited ones. The near-term change is most significant for customers of smaller players like TekSavvy, Execulink or Primus. Last week’s decision allows top-tier carriers to charge third-party ISPs a 15 per cent discount on what they'd ordinarily charge their own residential customers.
If this limit is, for example, 60Gb, Bell is now allowed to charge a specific amount per gigabyte used beyond that limit. The new framework, announced last week, allows major carriers to charge a set monthly fee for each ISP customer, and to enforce a set monthly usage limit. The small players represent 4 per cent of the market, and up until last year largely differentiated themselves from the mainline carriers by offering their customers either unlimited access or higher-usage accounts between 200 and 250 gigabytes per month.Īll that changed when the CRTC, acting on a complaint by Bell, ruled last year that mainline carriers could transition third-party ISPs away from unlimited and toward usage-based billing. This piggyback arrangement had been put in place to encourage competition. This latest decision directly affects only customers of third-party Internet providers, largely regional and local businesses that lack their own networks and instead use those provided by the major carriers under federally mandated wholesale agreements. Last week’s ruling by the CRTC that determines how much major carriers can charge third-party Internet service providers for usage-based billing is spawning a growing consumer backlash.Īn online petition against the ruling has attracted more than 200,000 names, and the Harper government, wary of attracting a black eye in advance of a possible election later this year, has asked for a review of the telecom regulator’s decision.īut what does it all mean to Canadian consumers? The face of the Canadian Internet is changing.
0 kommentar(er)
