Discussion Forums > Technology
ISP Bandwidth Limits
ColdFission:
Canada overall is pretty piss poor for broadband access. The big guys, Bell, Telus (West), and Rogers (East) have monopolies here in Canada. Its really hard to find competitive pricing without the bulcrap bandwidth caps with outrageous over-usage fees. If you are lucky, then you can go with some 2nd or 3rd tier ISPs that basically pay for the last mile from the larger ISPs and then bill you for that (as well as billings for their own internal networks). I am with a small ISP called Delta Cable which is now owned by EastLink which is based in Nova Scotia. Currently, we are in a bundle for Digital TV, phone, and Internet access for around $120.00 a month (I think that is the price, but that is what the Delta Cable site is telling but I don't currently have their Internet 40 plan but when you bundle it, caps do not apply to Internet 40 in this bundle. Normally, the cap is 250 GB a month for their Internet 40 {no bundle} and Internet 100 plans). As for the broadband access itself, I am currently on their Internet 20 (with the bundle) so up to 20 mb/s down and .9 mb/s, no caps. This month I've gone through 1.25 TB according to Bandwidth Monitor Pro (a really great to monitor your usage). I might call them up to see if I can get Internet 40 since we are already in their 3 product bundle for no extra charge. That would be great if I could since my uploads are really sad (sorry guys, I am trying!! xD)
There was an online petition called StopTheMeter where nearly 500,000 Canadians signed. The petition was help by openmedia.ca and it is a really good place to keep taps on news relating to Canadian Internet and content access. Michael Geist (michaelgeist.com) is also a great source that cover these issues along with copyright stuff.
So yeah, UBB (usage based billing) is really just a money grab by the ISPs. You can't compare Internet access to natural gas which is based on how much you use because its not a renewal resource and it is actually "used". You can't run out of "Internet" access because its always there.
The big thing in Canada right now that is being covered by openemdia (and others) are warrant-less taps on ISP customers by the RCMP. Its a measure that is included Harper's mega crime bill that is going to be voted on soon by the Parliament.
http://goo.gl/x4JT5
Anyway, I'd like to leave some links that covers the UBB issue:
http://goo.gl/5TDd4 UBB deception series
http://wordsbynowak.com/2011/02/22/10-myths-from-usage-based-billing-supporters/
http://dwmw.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/st-arnaud-myths-and-facts-re-ubb.pdf
EDIT: I just called my ISP and they said they will be doing rolling upgrades for customers in my area within this month or the next for free upgrade to Internet 40 (although she did mention that its happening already). This is great because for one, its going to be free; second, no caps with the bundle; and higher upload speeds of up to 2 mb/s, which means better seeding and faster uploads of photos and videos to Facebook (well, more of and advantage to my dad my brother who use it more than I do, especially for my dad since he uploads HD video to his account). Problem is that I need to upgrade my current Motorola Surfboard SB5101 DOCSIS 2.0 modem to the Motorola Surfboard SBG6580 DOCSIS 3.0 Wireless Gateway cable modem to get those speeds. Might have to call in some installers to come in sometime to switch out the modem.
karakurared:
--- Quote from: Freedom Kira on September 19, 2011, 01:59:42 AM ---
--- Quote from: Spanks on September 19, 2011, 01:42:03 AM ---I will admit I am worried if I ever live in Japan with what you guys and other have said about downloading. Though I should have enough anime to last me a lifetime before I leave and steam has made illegally downloading games a waste of time.
Hmm I wonder if they check your hard drives as you enter Japan. "Excuse me sir do you have any illegal anime to declare"
--- End quote ---
It'd be nice if you could get any Japanese games, especially visual novels, off of Steam.
--- End quote ---
Hell yes it would. I just had to import Haruhi for the PS3 and that was way too expensive.
Steam + Japanese games = WIN
Freedom Kira:
ColdFission - you must be living in Eastern Canada. Over here in the West is a company called Shaw. They rolled out upgrades to their network starting in the middle of the summer and are continuing to upgrade AFAIK; the weakest new plan was a 50/3 that would be upgraded to 50/5 by the end of the year. Their upgrades are due mostly to the phasing out of analog.
Shaw made a good impression on me by holding a few UBB discussion meetings and deciding to remove their proposed UBB schemes shortly before the OpenMedia success. In addition to that, I'm a student, so I get some intense discounts.
Now, I really hope OpenMedia can hang on to that momentum and kill that stupid online spying bill, which worries me a heck of a lot more than UBB. UBB is money-gouging, but spying is a direct infringement on the basic human right to privacy.
Stupid Conservatives. Why do people in this country keep voting for them?!
ColdFission:
--- Quote from: Freedom Kira on September 27, 2011, 07:16:34 AM ---ColdFission - you must be living in Eastern Canada. Over here in the West is a company called Shaw. They rolled out upgrades to their network starting in the middle of the summer and are continuing to upgrade AFAIK; the weakest new plan was a 50/3 that would be upgraded to 50/5 by the end of the year. Their upgrades are due mostly to the phasing out of analog.
Shaw made a good impression on me by holding a few UBB discussion meetings and deciding to remove their proposed UBB schemes shortly before the OpenMedia success. In addition to that, I'm a student, so I get some intense discounts.
Now, I really hope OpenMedia can hang on to that momentum and kill that stupid online spying bill, which worries me a heck of a lot more than UBB. UBB is money-gouging, but spying is a direct infringement on the basic human right to privacy.
Stupid Conservatives. Why do people in this country keep voting for them?!
--- End quote ---
Hehehe, I am a British Columbian (formerly a Manitoban from Winterpeg) living in the Lower Mainland. Delta is the municipality where I reside at currently, hence the name "Delta Cable". Our services were actually cut a few weeks ago because a few hooligans decided to cute some copper and some fiber for some quick cash, no one has yet to be arrested though. I am actually happy with my Internet connection (minus the really crappy up speeds right now of less than 1 Mb/s although I still manage with seeding and all that) and will be more happy once I get the free upgrade from 20 Mb/s down to 40 Mb/s down with up to 2 Mb/s up. IIRC, Shaw still has monthly caps and that is personally a deal breaker for now that I am nearing or going over 1 TB of usage a month now and I don't want to to get dinged with $1-2 for every 1 GB that I go over.
And as for the current government, I was glad I voted against them (and for the first time voting for any level of government) and went with the NDP. Harper and his gang of goonies are really good at manipulating the Canadian public which are mostly seniors now and are easily swayed to vote for him with fancy scare tactics and the like. I never liked the guy when he came into power during the minority government years and I just hate the guy even more.
PS: It was a really sad day for everyone when Jack Layton passed away of what seemed just days after gaining the official opposition position in Parliament. Big respect for him, terrible he didn't live longer to maybe get that big chair down in Ottawa.
Freedom Kira:
Not to go political here, but yeah I voted NDP too.
Anyway, back to Internet. Shaw actually does not enforce its caps. With their new system, users on their older plans (High Speed Lite, High Speed, High Speed Extreme) have caps that they don't charge you for going over, but they will call you and bug you if you do it frequently.
With their Broadband plans, they use the bump-up program, in which you are bumped up to the next tier of Internet with higher speed and caps (and higher cost, like $10 more per level; the highest level has no caps but costs $120/mo IIRC) for the rest of the month if you do go over. I believe you do get a warning message before you go over, though.
Go read their website again. It's a nice system they put in. The $1-2/extra GB was months ago.
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