Rogers Internet now charging per GB monthly for downloads??

[jayr]

Just got a notice in the mail today showing our download history for the last 3 months. They are now allowing us (the package we have) to download up to 60GB per month after which they are charging $2 per GB. This seems absurd? While I will never likely download that much in a month how can they just change their policy and make money off of downloaders? Any thoughts?

[bouche]

the lovely and magical fine print that is part of their service contract allows them to pretty much do whatever they want.

[Kanada Kev]

Fuck 'em. My ISP (Cogeco) started doing this a while ago. I've got a 60Gig limit (up + down). They tout their 10MB service yet limit the fuck outta ya and throttle torrent protocols.

Go TekSavvy if it all possible. The friggin Bell lines around here won't give me good enough speeds for switching over to TedSavvy at this point I did complain and got a better monthly rate at least.

I don't d/l many full size DVDs anymore ...it's all DivX now

[jonyak]

I have wimax out at my new place and its awesome.

I get like 5x the speed of my connection I had in the city, no throttling and no download cap.

I only get 3 MB but I get the full 3 MB all the time.

[Big Wooly Mammoth]

I despise Rogers. I've been thinking about switching to the National Capital Freenet. They offer DSL for about $30/month.

Rogers has seemed to stop throttling. I DLd some TV shows last night at speeds like 250 kb/s. It took about 30 minutes per show.

[phishtaper]

They are now allowing us (the package we have) to download up to 60GB per month after which they are charging $2 per GB.

what package do you have, jayr? we have the "extreme", i think.

i also just read an article this morning (globe or star, dunno) that said Bell just last week began throttling bandwidth of independent ISPs that lease Bell lines and the indies aint too pleased about it, nor are their customers. double ugh.

[bradm]

i also just read an article this morning (globe or star, dunno) that said Bell just last week began throttling bandwidth of independent ISPs that lease Bell lines and the indies aint too pleased about it, nor are their customers. double ugh.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Bell-Canada-Throttles-Wholesalers-Doesnt-Bother-To-Tell-Them-92915

Aloha,

Brad

[phishtaper]

i also just read an article this morning (globe or star' date=' dunno) that said Bell just last week began throttling bandwidth of independent ISPs that lease Bell lines and the indies aint too pleased about it, nor are their customers. double ugh.[/quote']

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Bell-Canada-Throttles-Wholesalers-Doesnt-Bother-To-Tell-Them-92915

Aloha,

Brad

YOU'RE HIRED!!

[Kanada Kev]

Holy fucking shit ... those bastards at Bell! fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

[Blane]

i also just read an article this morning (globe or star' date=' dunno) that said Bell just last week began throttling bandwidth of independent ISPs that lease Bell lines and the indies aint too pleased about it, nor are their customers. double ugh.[/quote']

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Bell-Canada-Throttles-Wholesalers-Doesnt-Bother-To-Tell-Them-92915

Aloha,

Brad

Yep, hows that shit for anti-competetive behaviour? Pisses me off 'cause I switched to Teksavvy in January precisely to get away from Bell's bullshit. Seems to have followed me.

From today's Globe and Mail:

Bell irks ISPs with new throttling policy

Rocky Gaudrault wants Bell Canada to take its hands off his customers' data.

The chief executive officer of Teksavvy Solutions Inc., an Internet service provider (ISP) based in Chatham, Ont., says a new plan from Bell to “manage†the Internet traffic on his network is compromising the service he offers his customers.

For more than a year, Bell and other Canadian ISPs have utilized “shaping†techniques, essentially slowing down certain kinds of Internet activity on their networks while giving priority to other data. Most of the traffic being shaped is peer-to-peer traffic, which is used to transmit large files, such as movie files.

Until recently, Bell did not shape or restrict the Internet traffic of third-party ISPs, which rent network access on the company's cables and infrastructure.

But last week, some of Mr. Gaudrault's 21,000 high-speed Internet clients began to report their connections were slowing down, and they wanted to know why. That's when he discovered Bell was restricting the torrent and peer-to-peer traffic of Teksavvy customers.

“They [bell] are screwing with our data, which is not their property,†he said. “Every single third-party ISP in Canada is going to be affected by this.â€

Network carriers such as Bell argue that bandwidth-intensive applications, such as peer-to-peer file transfer programs clog their networks, which results in slow connections for the rest of their customers, similar to how a slow-moving tractor trailer can impede the flow of traffic on a highway.

Bell Canada spokesman Jason Laszlo said the company has every right to limit the amount of bandwidth certain applications can consume on its networks and those it rents to third-party ISPs.

“This isn't a new policy,†he said. “Our agreements with wholesale ISP customers clearly include provisions regarding our rights to manage our networks appropriately to the benefit of all customers.â€

Bell began implementing its third-party ISP traffic shaping policy on March 14 and plans to have the program implemented across its entire network by April 7.

Teksavvy touts unlimited bandwidth use as a selling point to its customers, and has become a favourite ISP for peer-to-peer and torrent users in Ontario.

According to the company's website, its high-end residential DSL package offers download speeds of up to 5 megabytes a second.

However customers are reporting that during peak hours – between 4 p.m. and 2 a.m. – peer-to-peer download speeds have fallen to between 30 and 60 kilobytes a second, Mr. Gaudrault said.

Teksavvy has purchased its network access from Bell since it was founded 10 years ago, and the move comes as a “slap in the face,†he said.

“They've given themselves the right to data which isn't theirs and obviously in my mind that is an issue and they seem to not think so,†he said. ??

Mr. Gaudrault has already contacted other third-party ISPs that deal with Bell about their next move, which could involve setting up their own infrastructure, but they have yet to make any plans.??

Proponents of the unwritten code of Net Neutrality contend that all Internet traffic must be treated equally and that ISPs shouldn't be allowed to restrict the flow of any online data.

Estimates vary, but analysts believe peer-to-peer and torrent traffic accounts for anywhere from 70 to 90 per cent of online bandwidth use, but emanates from as few as 5 to 10 per cent of all users.

In addition to peer-to-peer and torrent traffic, ISPs are experiencing bandwidth shortages due to the increased use of video sites such as YouTube and the growing popularity of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephony.

Rogers Communications Inc. has shaped traffic on its own networks since 2005, but a spokeswoman for the company could not say whether it also shapes third-party ISP traffic.

Telus Corp. has stated it does not manage or shape any of the traffic on its networks.

[Kanada Kev]

This is complete BULLSHIT. I hope that this gets spread far and wide and that people start realizing what this truly means to their privacy and what doors it is opening up for further bullshit. If Bell is doing this with your internet packets then what's to stop them from doing it with your cell phone or land line ... are they going to start listening in there too? Or are they already? The shit has hit the fan in the US with this already, now it's happening here

Here's what Rocky (CEO from TekSavvy) said:

R0CKY

TSI Rocky

Premium,VIP

join:2005-05-19

Chatham, ON

Ok... Here's the deal...

They're now openly acknowledging that they are rolling out a full throttling process. They plan to have things fully throttled by April 7th. All BT and P2P traffic will be affected.

They claim they are allowed to do so according to their Terms and Services under the Fair Usage Policy in the tariffed contracts... We'll be looking into this shortly.

The meeting was with Sales and Product Management. They will be preparing a formal letter before end of week.

In the meantime, we (many other ISPs) are going to prepare as well... I guess the high road is the path taken in this case.

Spread the word one and all as this topic needs to reach every level possible... There's now officially an issue and action must be taken by all if we're to rectify things.

Rocky

--

TSI Rocky - TekSavvy Solutions Inc.

And:

This is the exact problem and where Bell doesn't get it. TekSavvy and all third party ISPs are paying for a "slice" of this network, so no, it's not Bell's at that point. They're paid to make sure the infrastructure remains in good shape, but they're not paid to police it! The flaw in Bell's thought is in their not understanding that we've paid for the right to this space... We've paid for multiple Gig-E connections for the data to flow back to; we've paid for the DSL aggregation interface (AHSSPI) and we're also paying on a per user basis (approx $20/month) to have the data relayed directly back to our main point of Interconnect.

So, in short, no, they don't have rights to this network segment... An easy analogy would be a landlord, who is managing an apartment, gives himself a key to come in and out as he pleases and on top of that decide which tenants friends they let in! I'm not sure about you, but I'm fairly certain, one; the tenant would call the police, but two; you'd land up with a very big black-eye!

FUCK YOU BELL !

[Freak By Night]

I can't believe Teksavvy's CEO is named "Rocky",

and he's talking about giving somebody a black eye!

[bouche]

map of throttling ...

[bouche]

Help Azureus fight Throttling

another throttling article

[AD]

map of throttling ...

How is this useful? It does not take into account the geographical distribution of TSI customers. Does the distribution differ from what would be expected from a random sample of customers?

[The Chameleon]

Sign of the times my friend. I recently read an industry article from my dad's work (he owns a music publishing company) and in it it explains how pretty much every royalty collection agency worldwide has put their weight on small blanket fees for those who download music, much in the way blank media is tarriffed and Socan charges business for using music etc... Then these royalties are distributed back to the artists or those who own the copywrites on a sliding scale depending on how many copywrites you own and how popular your songs are.

Basically this is the music industry finally figuring out how to get the money they are due, due to internet file swapping and torrent downloading.

had to happen eventually.

[AD]

so SOCAN gets fees from my internet connection charge, even if I don't download any Canadian artists?

[c-towns]

and he's from Chatham.

[Kanada Kev]

What i don't get about that is that how the fuck to they know that it's music that's being transferred via P2P protocols. If I was to transfer data via torrent to you for whatever reason that had nothing to do with Hollywood or the music industry, they would be limiting me and taking money from something that isn't "theirs".

The only way for them to monitor the data is to "spy" on your packets. Total invasion of privacy. If they do that, then they should be allowed to make sure that you're not "talking" about anything "they" don't like over your phone lines, etc.

It's garbage and this should cause a major concern amongst people who care about their rights and freedoms.

Hopefully these stories will burst the bubble and get people informed.

[AD]

Total invasion of privacy.

that's putting it lightly. it's illegal. (i know you know that kev, just wanted to make it more black and white here). there has to be consent or prior authorization to look at real-time communication. otherwise it's an unlawful intercept. there may be some 'terms of service' way of circumventing that, but still....

[Blane]

What i don't get about that is that how the fuck to they know that it's music that's being transferred via P2P protocols. If I was to transfer data via torrent to you for whatever reason that had nothing to do with Hollywood or the music industry, they would be limiting me and taking money from something that isn't "theirs".

I don't think the "illegal downloading" issue is the main event in the bandwidth limiting debate (from Bell/Rogers' perspectives). It's a convenient add-on that they can pull out informally to justify, but I think the bottom line comes down to bandwidth use. Bell has figured out that a few apps (regardless of what they're used for) suck up a big % of bandwidth and are not used by mom and pop jones who make up the majority of their clientelle.

Thus they figure they can squeeze out a big % of bandwidth usage while only pissing off a small % of their clients. Basic cost-benefit decision made at the expense of legitimate use and net neutrality.

Now they get to pass on this position onto their resellers as well, which further aggravates the situation.

Depressing, IMO.

[Birdy]

and he's from Chatham.

hahahaa... i was thinking 'i know this dude'.

[CyberHippie]

Rogers has been monitoring and had the 60gig cap for a while now. They just recently decided to start telling people about it, and I suspect they'll start enforcing it. A few months ago they cut my service off forcing me to upgrade to a new and fancy modem. Since then my torrents are a lot more throttled and now they are announcing the cap. I suspect the newer modem technology has a lot do to with this, and now they can enforce across the board...

I guess I could see a case for paying for extra gigs. But then it that's the case, all media should be free over the internet and a portion of my data fees should go to artists and musicians.

[Kanada Kev]

Made it on to The National tonight on CBC. Of course, the crux of the piece insinuated that it's the "teens" who are to blame with all their surfing, YouTubin', FaceBooking! Seriously, I gotta find out who worked on that piece, because they were either bamboozled by the propaganda from Ma Bell or they are complete morons (or possibly both!)

Love how Bell advertises your internet as operating at lightning fast speeds, doesn't deliver it, throttles you, invades privacy, then decides to charge you more $$ for less.

Wow. What the fuck happened to those interweb toobes???

[Big Wooly Mammoth]

Rogers has been monitoring and had the 60gig cap for a while now. They just recently decided to start telling people about it, and I suspect they'll start enforcing it. A few months ago they cut my service off forcing me to upgrade to a new and fancy modem. Since then my torrents are a lot more throttled and now they are announcing the cap. I suspect the newer modem technology has a lot do to with this, and now they can enforce across the board...

I guess I could see a case for paying for extra gigs. But then it that's the case, all media should be free over the internet and a portion of my data fees should go to artists and musicians.

I was avoiding the new modem myself for a long time. I had suspected that with it they'd be able to monitor my activity. I was having no problems witht the old modem. Then one day it just stopped working. When I called tech support they claimed it was because of the modem. So, I went out and got the new one. It didn't solve my connectivity problem. It turns out that some of my internet setting had mysteriously changed (they claimed it was a virus) and all I had to do was change them back.