Up here in Canada we don’t have the luxury, regardless of how the companies involved like to spin it, of real competition when it comes to broadband Internet access. We have Bell Canada deciding to throttle the speed of third party ISPs who buy wholesale broadband access from the telecommunication giant because they don’t want competitors offering faster service than what they offer their own residential and business customers.
This is the same company that has also announced the closing of their online video store, leaving customers holding the bag with videos that they will no longer be able to play (thank you DRM), so they can concentrate on their Online TV service. At the same time we have Rogers appearing to revisit to controversy again over injecting Rogers’ content into users browsing activity.
Now we find out that Cogeco in their effort to further screw their customers through their instituting metered billing back in April can’t even get the software being used to track usage to work right.
After a several month adjustment period where customer usage was tracked but not billed, Cogeco was supposed to start billing in June. Judging from posts to our Cogeco forum, the process isn’t going particularly smoothly for most customers, in part because the bandwidth usage monitor Cogeco is using doesn’t work.
Many users are getting e-mail alert notifications with consumption numbers that don’t match the consumption indicated in Cogeco’s online usage-tracking portal. Others aren’t seeing accurate amounts on either. Some aren’t having any bandwidth usage registered whatsoever. It looks like Cogeco hasn’t started billing yet which is good — given they wouldn’t know what they were billing for.
Source: DSL Reports :: Cogeco Metered Billing Goes Live, Confuses Customers
When I first switched to using Bell’s DSL service almost two years ago now I was paying $24.95 (and another $39.95 for regular phone service) for 5MB down. I am now paying just over $50.00 for the same service. My only other alternative where we live – Cogeco Cable.
Either way like many of the people in Canada I’m screwed either which way. Competition? It doesn’t exist outside of maybe the large metropolitan areas like Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.
Can't you get Direct TV? Everyone I know who still uses cable complains all the time about it.
not in Canada but what does DirectTV have to do with having a broadband Internet connection??
Canadians aren't alone. Here in Oregon, we have 3 choices, but one is “Clearwire”, a wireless broadband, that from experience goes out if the weather gets nasty or clouds are too low, though they say this doesn't happen…it does.
That leaves Comcast Cable, which is well over 50 USD now, and Qwest DSL, which is far more expensive once you count in the required home phone serves for a SLOWER internet connection.