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Bell Canada To Stop Internet Throttling

Posted by samzenpus on from the opening-the-tubes dept.

inject_hotmail.com writes "I just caught wind of a story over at the Huff. Bell Canada has written a letter to the CRTC indicating that it will end traffic shaping on March 1, 2012. Although Bell says that this is due to "increasing popularity of streamed video and other traffic" and 'P2P file-sharing, as a proportion of total traffic, has been diminishing,' it's far more likely that they are interested in higher revenue. In all likelihood, the change of heart is based on the fact that Bell has moved most of their customer base to, and offer no alternative to, low-usage-cap UBB packages, which would ultimately generate more income or deter full usage of their service (and thus require less infrastructure investment)."

3 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. a little more data on usage plans by Stewie241 · · Score: 5, Informative

    So, for what this means, here is some data on pricing and data caps:
    Essential Plus - Speeds up to 2Mbps - $34 per month
    2GB of bandwidth per month
    = 2.27 hours of usage per month

    Performance - Speeds up to 6 Mbps - $44 per month
    25GB of bandwidth per month
    = 9.5 hours of usage per month

    Fibe 6 - Speeds up to 6 Mbps - $44 per month
    25GB of bandwidth per month
    = 9.5 hours of usage per month

    Fibe 12 - Speeds up to 12 Mbps - $54 per month
    50GB of bandwidth per month + $5 per 40GB
    ($1.50 per GB not prepaid)
    = 9.5 hours of usage per month

    Fibe 16 - Speeds up to 16Mbps - $64 per month
    75GB of bandwidth per month
    = 10.7 hours of usage per month

    Fibe 25 - Speeds up to 25Mbps - $74 per month
    125GB of bandwidth per month
    = 11.4 hours of usage per month

    Basically, Bell figures that you will use the full capacity of your connection about 10 hours a month or so.

    1. Re:a little more data on usage plans by Stewie241 · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not quite as steep as $5 per GB, but it is still high IMO.

      $2.50 / GB or $5/month for 40GB prepaid
      Performance: $2 / GB or $5/month for 40GB prepaid
      Fibe6: $2 / GB or $5/month for 40GB prepaid
      Fibe12: $1.50 / GB or $5/month for 40GB prepaid
      Fibe16: $1 / GB or $5/month for 40GB prepaid
      Fibe25: $1 / GB or $5/month for 40GB prepaid

      "As a Bell Internet or Bell Fibe Internet customer, you can log in to My Bell and add the 40 GB Usage Insurance plan to your service any time. For the 80 GB or 120 GB plan, call us at 310-SURF (7873)."

      I just love how they call it a 'Usage Insurance' plan.

  2. Don't be evil != Do no evil by Mathinker · · Score: 1, Informative

    I love it when all the anti-Google crowd misquote the "don't be evil" into "do no evil".

    For those of you who are American English challenged, these two phrases have totally different connotations.

    "Don't be evil" is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, more like "don't emulate Hollywood villains".

    "Do no evil" is fire-and-brimstone church preacher telling you you're going to Hell.

    If you want to rank on Google for being hypocritical, you should first try to understand this. It's important.