Changes to Shaw's internet bandwidth

[kyoshiro]

I just went to telus with 15-15-15 and ugh they're taking care of all the shaw stuff for me.

[skholla]

Are you guys really going past your shaw cap? Can telus really be trusted, who's to say that they don't turn around and do the same thing? Once you are in a 3yr contract you are screwed.

I remember people getting notices from telus about mpaa copywright violations. Never heard about that with shaw.
Posted via RS Mobile

[kyoshiro]

Originally Posted by skholla

Are you guys really going past your shaw cap? Can telus really be trusted, who's to say that they don't turn around and do the same thing? Once you are in a 3yr contract you are screwed.

I remember people getting notices from telus about mpaa copywright violations. Never heard about that with shaw.
Posted via RS Mobile

You indeed have a point and I am indeed going over the cap (which will have to change for the future)
Indeed telus cant 100% be trusted as they may do the same thus I have specifically asked about termination fees (I will gtfo if shit goes haywire) and the termination fee will be approximate to what I would have to pay on shaw a month once we put in the datapacks usage.
Also getting caught has nothing to do with which isp you're on so those don't really apply.
However, the main problem I have is with shaw not notifying me about these changes and having me potentially get on my toes and try to make sense of what people are saying. Besides shaw will not offer their Nitro/Warp to my place but Optik Turbo is available here and I havent really been all that impressed with Shaw's performance during some days.

[TOS'd]

Just talked to shaw tech support. I'll post what the guy said to me, some stuff may be old news to some. Also some explanations from him may be the typical bs response. Anyways,

I asked about getting the modem usage feature online so I can check my usage:

We used to be able to do that with the old tool but we upgraded our tools and we've lost that functionality for now as the new upgrades are pending.
the new one can't be added and the old one has been removed. But everyone should be upgraded soon

When do you get charged for going over your cap:

You need to go over your usage two consecutive months and then if the third month goes over you'll be on Usage Based Billing. So if you see a usage graph on your bill then it'll take a couple months before any actual charges are applied

About the reduced bandwidth cap:

Well what happened is we did an increase and realized when we acquired our new bandwidth tools half way through that it was over reporting. Customers actually used less than we thought so we realized changing the bandwidth might relay the wrong message and people may start using more usage or trying to "use up" their allotted bandwidth. We realized that this decision had to be rescinded to manage the business better so they decided at the 6 month mark it would be changed back. It does sort of suck that it was done so close to the Usage Based Billing inception but we figured we might as well rip the bandaide off now rather than wait any longer which would cause even more upset. We basically anticipated that there'd be poor reception to this, but it had to be done. One of the negative things too is that in response to this, Telus upped their limits for no other reason to remain competitive with us so we sort of shot ourselves in the foot

At the end of the day though, not a lot of customers really go over their limits and Usage Based Billing was coming regardless of any shifting in our packages. We're making sure to work with customers and we actually pushed back the UBB charges for people in Edmonton that received UBB before all the other Shaw markets. So we're doing our best to make sure the negative impact is minimized. And so far the reception has been really good, other than the initial shock, confusion, upset, etc

I mentioned using my router bandwidth logs to determine if I am over or under my cap:

Our usage is showing even lower, I believe we actually round down some of the usage so what we report is modest in comparison to routers. Also, we do it by billing cycle and not monthly. I use DDWRT firmware and monitored mine and found that it reports higher than what I see at work as well

What are my options in the future since I am constantly going over my 100GB cap:

you can add a data pack which will can offset that. It's $5 for 10GB, $20 for 60GB and $50 for 250GB if you anticipate that you'll be over. Also, we're being liberal and courteous and doing things like adding these data packs and backdating them for people that go over and missed the memo, or had trouble with their monitoring tools, etc. So we're basically telling people that there shouldn't be a huge amount of shock and upset and if there is, we'll help where we can. We're doing this on a case by case basis so I can pretty much assure you that there shouldn't be too much trouble if and when you are billed

[FiveDime]

To all of you who still don't understand what UBB is all about. Bell's on demand service charges $6.99 PER MOVIE, NetFlix is $7.99 UNLIMITED PER MONTH. That is all. Older movies on Bell still run at $4.99 per.

Now available to Canadians:

* Boxee
* AppleTV
* NetFlix
* NHL Gamecenter Live (all other major sports leagues provide similar services)
* Google TV (coming soon...)
* iTunes
* PS3 store
* Xbox store

All of these will impact your bandwidth. By Bell imposing ridiculously low caps and further charging per GB, you will not be able to afford these services (meanwhile Bell's on demand and Internet TV services will magically not count against your cap). This is an obvious financial disincentive to prevent you from accessing these services. If everything were on equal footing, then the cheapest service would win out, wouldn't it?

Great comment by Graysdir to those hating on Netflix (yes, we all realize that Netflix is in its infancy and that the selection sucks):

Netflix has been adding new titles weekly.

But with UBB in place, Netflix will never have a chance to grow. Therein lies the problem. With 25-60GB caps with our ISPs, Netflix won't have enough subscribers to be able to afford to buy new content. Exactly what Shaw is hoping for.

I've heard rumors that Hulu was considering coming to Canada, but now that UBB is in place, they are reconsidering, because with these caps, it makes web video unavailable to the average Canadian internet user.

Seriously, how do you expect there to be any form of competition if Canadians won't have the bandwidth available to access these services? From a business sense, these services will just overlook Canada. It's not just about today, it's also about tomorrow.

Not available to Canadians, but may one day be:

* Amazon On Demand
* Hulu
* Roku

The reason many of us Canadians don't even know about these products is because we have not yet been exposed to them. The second you actually see the type of content that our American counterparts have access to, a lightbulb goes off and you begin to question, "why don't I have access to these services?" It's a beautiful tragedy thanks to the likes of the CRTC and Bell.

The sad part is that they are killing more than just our access to Internet TV by attempting to limit our Internet in the ways that they have/are.

Case in point:


You know what else? Skype, streaming radio, Facetime will be impacted as well. Open Source, cloud computing, steam, console/pc video games and even app stores (ever use your wifi to avoid the high price cell data use?). and just forget filling your house with smart appliances. UBB is going to put us behind the rest of the world in content delivery of all kinds.

[Soundy]

^All good points by FiveDime.

Keep in mind, it's not quite as terrible as it sounds: according to Netflix, streaming uses about 1GB/hr for SD, 1.5GB/hr in HD. You'd have to be wasting a LOT of time in front of the tube for it to become a problem.

Skype, streaming radio and Facetime bandwidth are negligible by comparison. As an example: a friend of mine decided to see if he could rack up to his 6GB iPhone data plan a while back, so he played streaming videos (YouTube mostly) constantly for two weeks... and barely scratched 500MB. He ended up dropping his plan to a 2GB limit and still comes nowhere close to it.

[goo3]

Remember there was a time when network providers disabled wifi on your phone cuz they wanted you to pay for data instead..

[Vulcan300]

You need to go over your usage two consecutive months and then if the third month goes over you'll be on Usage Based Billing. So if you see a usage graph on your bill then it'll take a couple months before any actual charges are applied

I wonder if this is true so that you can just go over 1 month and under the next and over again the next so you don't get put on UBB

[RC0310_EJ]

Just switched over to Telus.. signed 2 year contract and got $200 gift card to use on Telus Mobility Phones..

[qwertyuiop]

http://openmedia.ca/news/openmediaca...uture-internet

Fucking CRTC!

[Soundy]

Originally Posted by RC0310_EJ

Just switched over to Telus.. signed 2 year contract and got $200 gift card to use on Telus Mobility Phones..

You're gonna love being locked into that contract when Telus starts enforcing caps and overage charges too...

[GrapeDrink]

Originally Posted by Soundy

^All good points by FiveDime.

Keep in mind, it's not quite as terrible as it sounds: according to Netflix, streaming uses about 1GB/hr for SD, 1.5GB/hr in HD. You'd have to be wasting a LOT of time in front of the tube for it to become a problem.

Skype, streaming radio and Facetime bandwidth are negligible by comparison. As an example: a friend of mine decided to see if he could rack up to his 6GB iPhone data plan a while back, so he played streaming videos (YouTube mostly) constantly for two weeks... and barely scratched 500MB. He ended up dropping his plan to a 2GB limit and still comes nowhere close to it.

are you kidding me? I don't have a data plan on my phone so I'm not sure if its the same but I was tracking my own usage(PC) by watching music videos and etc to see how much bandwidth it would use and on average a 4-5 min MV @ 480P quality was using 40-50MB per video. I mean for the casual user of course the 60GB limit is not going to mean anything to them but you have to realize files are getting bigger and bigger as quality goes up. I mean just taking me for example I'm a big tv shows guy and I am always busy when they are on so I download/stream them later on instead and a regular 40 minute episode is 350MB for standard quality and 1GB for 720p. You can see how that all adds up quite quickly. I mean we will basically be working with 2GB a day and if you have another person in the household that uses the internet too then you are basically shit out of luck.

[Carl Johnson]

Been with Shaw for who knows how long now. Just checked secure.shaw.ca and notice that my 2010 November usage was 230GB, December was 200GB. 2 weeks into my current billing cycle I am at 100GB already. Fuuuuu.... so how come the big change all of the sudden? Was the old meter incorrect or the new one just overtracking my usage?

[TOS'd]

^ Did you have the old monitoring system?

This is bullshit. I talked to two ppl from tech support and both won't/can't give me the new monitoring system enabled on my account. I never had the old one either. They keep saying, oh its only for ppl in Edmonton that have it, which is bullshit cause all you guys have it too.

[clowe]

Originally Posted by Carl Johnson

Been with Shaw for who knows how long now. Just checked secure.shaw.ca and notice that my 2010 November usage was 230GB, December was 200GB. 2 weeks into my current billing cycle I am at 100GB already. Fuuuuu.... so how come the big change all of the sudden? Was the old meter incorrect or the new one just overtracking my usage?

The old usage tracker used to show ~40gb/month for my account, but the tracker was like Swiss cheese for me, every other day didn't register on it, so that one was probably under-tracked.

The new one shows that I'm at 110gb with 10 days left in my billing cycle

[qwertyuiop]

Write your MPs, spread it around through email, facebook, twitter, etc. Whatever it takes to get the uninformed to understand what the impact will be for all Canadians. Seems many people are saying "so, I don't go over the limit anyways so it doesn't affect me" well tell them to STFU and educate them. Maybe they like living in a backwards country with corporate monopolies but I sure as hell don't.

[RC0310_EJ]

Originally Posted by Soundy

You're gonna love being locked into that contract when Telus starts enforcing caps and overage charges too...

I average around 200-ish GB/month..

my monthly cap with Telus Optik High Speed Turbo is 250GB/month..

I think I'll be alright.. and we don't watch TV much.. mostly BT or stream

Shaw just doesn't offer the package I'm looking for.. I don't need faster speed.. just a higher cap that's affordable.

[FiveDime]

Originally Posted by qwertyuiop

Write your MPs, spread it around through email, facebook, twitter, etc. Whatever it takes to get the uninformed to understand what the impact will be for all Canadians. Seems many people are saying "so, I don't go over the limit anyways so it doesn't affect me" well tell them to STFU and educate them. Maybe they like living in a backwards country with corporate monopolies but I sure as hell don't.

I wrote my MP(libby davies) and she wrote me back.

Dear Chris,



Thanks for your email about the CRTC’s recent approval of Usage Based Billing for internet services – I agree, it’s an outrageous decision and as you suggest, undermines ‘net neutrality’ in Canada. I have shown my support for reform of internet usage billing policies by signing the openmedia.ca petition last Fall and trying to raise awareness about this issue through my Twitter and Facebook pages.



My colleagues Charlie Angus (Digital Issues Critic), and Brian Masse (Industry Critic), are carefully following this issue and I am confident they will be following up on this issue when Parliament resumes at the end of January. I have also attached our most recent press release on the issue.



Thanks for taking the time to write me about this important issue. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with future concerns about federal issues.



Sincerely,



Libby

Heres my original email (please excuse the spelling)

Hello,

I'm a resident in your riding and I wanted to send this email about a few issues i have with Usage Based Billing and Net Neutrality in Canada.

I feel like the Canadian telecom industry is falling behind on the international scene because of CRTC corruption and the anti-competitive nature of Rogers and Bell's oligopoly. As Canadians we are paying more for less. We endure poor internet price points and poor cell phone price points, the regulation of which is all derived from two main corporations (Rogers and Bell). We need more competition to spark more innovation and provide better price:service ratios. Canadians will not be able to compete on a global scale with a corrupt and archaic telecom infrastructure.

We pay a lot more per mbps than many other countries, yet we get lower speeds, we get tethered, and we have all kinds of bandwidth restrictions. Meanwhile, Canada is known as a very affluent nation when it comes to internet use, how come we don't have the technology to foster this?

Personally i don't under stand the recent allowance of Usage Based Billing to Canadians and how this beinfits Canadian Consumers and the people who use the internet on a daily basis. My work revolves around the internet and i see this as a step towards the end of Net Neutrality. Mean while these Companies complain that they need to implement UBB because it costs to much to upkeep the infrastructure they are building even though the Big 4 ISP's in Canada have had record profits in 2011.


The end of Net Neutrality is nere unless we can stop the CRTC from jumping on board with these companies. Net Neutrality is important because its the freedom of the internet and freedom of expression. THe internet is humanities way of connecting to one another and sharing ideas and information. If Net Neutrality end's i see a bleak future for the reasons listed.




I hope you get this message and i hope others have emailed you with the same concerns.



Thanks!

[qwertyuiop]

Excellent. I wrote my MP as well, I encourage you all to do the same. You can find all of them here along with their contact information: http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfP...ent&Language=E

[Ch28]

I sent an email out to my MP (Bill Siksay) earlier today regarding the same issue.

Hope more of you do it so this issue gets pushed to the front.

[dangonay]

Libby Davies? Of course she will agree with you. She thinks people are "entitled" to shit for free without paying for your fair share. I wonder if the NDP campaigned for fast, cheap unlimited Internet how many of you would actually vote for them? The amount of money people pay for Internet/cable is such a small percentage of your total cost of living that it's laughable people whine about it while throwing huge money away on other things.
Posted via RS Mobile

[ForbiddenX]

Yea I finally got around to emailing Ujaal Dossanjh . Hope he gets it and they actually do something about it.

[ddr]

why won't they just fucking enable the new accurate tracker for everyone? so we can all go over limit and have them be 'nice' and give us some dumbass rate on it?

[kyoshiro]

I emailed to Richmond's Alice Wong
hopefully she gets it

[hoking]

I've consistantly gone over 300gb/month for the past 6months with Shaw, my cap says i have 100gb,.. I have yet to be charged for any over usage or warned??