There is more and more talk about two tier internet pricing. Now that crap seems to have made it to Canada. The talk that is, not the actual policies… yet. The way I understand it is that people pay for a certain service and get loads of bandwith for it. Now that we are actually using a lot of it, they (the ISPs) don’t like the deal anymore and want to make changes.
In other words, sure Videotron can give 4Gb (or however much it is) of download to anyone for, what, 30$ a month? They’re fine with it while it’s only marketing and most people use a tenth of it. But comes a time where more and more people use what they pay for and they don’t like the deal anymore, time to charge differently ‘cause the deal they were giving isn’t just bullshit anymore, it’s actual usage.
Or am I missing something?
4 Comments
i’m not sure what idea you have in your head – but I’m guessing that you have it wrong. It’s not about bandwidth – it’s about charging for what the telco thinks of as “added services” like voip and downloading movies. stuff where QOS (quality of service) can come in. They know that we’re going to be cutting into their current markets (long-distance and even local calls over naked dsl or cable) and their future profits (selling movies).
Basically they are trying to resite bandwidth becoming a low-cost, competitive commodity.
fuckwits.
Humm. Much better said but very similar no? Not happy with our usage of their service so they’re trying to find a new way of charging us. Charging us more of course. All of that convergence talk a few years back was about “the pipe guys” like Videotron and Bell offering movies on demand, tv, phone, etc. so they certainly knew we were going to use the access to internet for that. Problem is, the content isn’t being sold by them and the phone calls might go through Skype so they’re trying to find another revenue stream. But varying the quality of service with how much you’re willing to pay for it is a horrible “solution”.
Videotron may be looking for more money, that’s natural, they’re a big company looking to continue to make 300% profit off the backs of the consumers.
But the problem is likely spurred on by Quebecor, who sees each and every Videotron customer as a gleeful bandwidth saturating, pirate leeching money away from their coffers. They really do have way too much influence over most of the media in Quebec, from my limited experience and view of the situation. Too many fingers in way too many pies.
All true about Quebecor. It is though, at least, a North American issue, not only here. Same kind of talk is hapening in the states for the same reasons. Talk about charging Apple for the iTunes bandwith for one, charging Google for… is another.