Concerns on higher cost for internet access

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The Dieselduck
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Currently located: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada (West Coast of Canada)
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Concerns on higher cost for internet access

Post by The Dieselduck »

I am spreading the word of my extreme displeasure on new caps for my bandwidth, arbitrarily impose by my, and probable yours too, internet service provider. If you live in Canada, this may interest you.

Why is it, that Shaw would charge me, under their new plans, ~$72 for my January usage of 90 gb of bandwidth (~$40 base for 60gb, $2 per GB over), while my website hosted in the US, for the same period, used 90 gb of bandwidth (of an unlimited plan) and they charge me $8. Sounds like a rip off to me. Stifling competition and innovation. These guys - Shaw Telus and Rogers - are too use to screwing us - overcharging to start with and delivering poor service. BTW – the $8 is in line with estimates of the actual Bandwidth cost of $0.10/gb of data.

I’ve heard the argument that “those who use it should pay”, well if that’s the case then why don't ISPs charge my aging parents or sister less / accordingly, to the 5 gb a month they use approximately. If the US guys (Dreamhost) can do it for such reasonable cost, and still grow, year after year, why can’t the Canadians corps – even with their monopoly? Another argument is that the cost of technology is higher. I find this to be pure BS! Cost of technology has dramatically drop. And why are independent operators like Techsaavy restricted to compete – it’s not their fault that the greedy corps that rule Canada are so “inefficient”.

We seem to put up with this stuff, all because we are complacent little sheep, afraid to say anything to upset people. In our house, we get the majority of our information from online sources, I also run a reasonably successful website dependent on internet access, so this is a very real problem for us. It will become one for you too, sooner than later, with more and more content becoming only available online.

I urge you to call your ISP - Shaw and Telus - tell them to stuff themselves (and not just with our money) with their Duopoly on our internet service. Contact your MP - The Federal NDP is the only ones speaking out against it. At the very least, sign the online petition at the link below.


I've sent a letter to my MP about it, you can too, Ive also donated to and joined http://openmedia.ca/meter, maybe you could consider it. Either way, educate yourself and spread the word.
Martin Leduc
Certified Marine Engineer and Webmaster
Martin's Marine Engineering Page
http://www.dieselduck.net
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