The End of Unlimited Internet Access…

DavidM    Gadgets and Stuff     bell canada, crtc, Netflix, unlimited internet

If you are Canadian and have an unlimited internet access account you may be in for a shock over the next few days, if you haven’t already received a notice.

The reason for the notice is Bell Canada recently won a huge victory with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) having approved their request to introduce Usage Based Billing on wholesale Internet services.

You might think that because you don’t have Bell Canada as your internet provider you’re fine, however, most phone line based services offered through other companies use Bell Canada in the background meaning that your provider will now be billed for your usage beyond a (very low) basic monthly amount.

In my case, the new bandwidth allowance is 25GB per month which seems like a lot until you start to factor in multiple devices — computers, ipods, gaming consoles, etc — and of course, movie services like Netflix. Now there’s the rub, while I understand that in a time of streaming video, huge file transfers of photos, etc that unlimited internet access was on it’s last legs, I can’t help but think that this is a calculated attack on Netflix, Playstation Video Store and others. Why? Because Bell offers pay-per-view movies via their satellite service and these movie streaming services are likely cutting in on their business. So with each movie you stream being in the 1 to 6GB range you will quickly use up your allowed bandwidth making it less and less cost effective.

What can you do? Aside from research, not much. Take a look around at the new plans being offered by your current provider and others, including base bandwidth allowances, set cost for additional bandwidth blocks, overage penalties and find the best fit for your usage.

As for cable internet providers like Roger’s, their customers have already had caps added on monthly bandwidth and, of course, been given the chance to upgrade to multiple levels of accounts ranging up to $99/month.

If you enjoyed this article please consider sharing it!