Time to find a new Internet provider!!! AGAIN!

[Cycleguy007]

Got an e-mail from Primus the other day:

As you may have heard, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has recently approved Bell Canada’s request to introduce Usage Based Billing on wholesale Internet services.
The CRTC’s decision directly affects the High-Speed Internet service provided to you by Primus Canada and, unfortunately, the newly associated costs to Primus make the unlimited Internet service you are now enjoying no longer financially viable. This serves as 30 days notice that beginning February 1, 2011 there will be changes to your Internet service provided by Primus.
As a result, the following changes will apply commencing your February invoice:

• Your existing High Speed Internet plan will now have 25GB of monthly usage included
• For the minority of customers who exceed this amount, additional usage up to 300GB will be charged at $2.00/GB to a maximum of $60.00/month. Usage in excess of 300GB per month will be charged an additional $1.10/GB
• Additional Usage Plans can be purchased starting at $5/month for an additional 40GB

I responded with:

About 1 1/2 years ago I canceled all my Bell service in favour of Primus... the reason? Throttling and download limits...​

Now- YOU GUYS are introducing the same crap! There is no reason to stay with Primus now is there???​

I am VERY disappointed in rec'ving this message, and will be looking for service elsewhere as a result.

Sincerely,​

In doing some research I have found:



Anyone using them?
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[BEER]

Sometimes is better to pay more for less headaches. Been using rogers for unlimited High internet service, lan line and mobile (Blackberry). $130 a month, bit expensive but not have to worry about drastic changes.

 

[Esco!]

Are you sure they will start throttling too, CG??

 

[Cycleguy007]

Are you sure they will start throttling too, CG??

Not sure about the throttling... the DL limits is what really pisses me off... :grrrrrr:

 

[scotty]

IM just shopping for a new internet service myself. I currently have a black box thing from rogers which I can move around and plug in needs ac power so its akward but it was ok while I was fairly transient( that sounds bad lol) lately.

Never had them complain about about my usage but I only get 2-3 mb/s its about 45 bucks, but as I said it was reasonably portable without getting in pay per gig rocketsticks and so on.

My point of this post was to ask... since all these little providers are just piggy backing on bell or some other big provider wont they have to set limits soon too?

 

[Esco!]

Not sure about the throttling... the DL limits is what really pisses me off... :grrrrrr:

But when you go over your limit it only means your monthly bill goes up by $20 to $30.
Thats still much cheaper then BELL so I dont get why you're so upset by this :arf:

 

[Cycleguy007]

But when you go over your limit it only means your monthly bill goes up by $20 to $30.
Thats still much cheaper then BELL so I dont get why you're so upset by this :arf:

According to Primus, my usage for December was 93 GB (I have 3 teenagers don't forget...) so that will be more than $20-$30...

Regardless, when I "signed up" I was told there were no usage fee's and they just arbitrailily changed that, so why wouldn't I be PO'd about it...

This is merely a money grab... Not "so upset" per se... just sick and tired of getting screwed over. :grrrrrr:

 

[Jawbone]

Companies are following the Governments lead. Nickle and dime the poor saps at every turn and at every opportunity.

I suggest calling Rogers and ask them if you were to come back to them what can they do for you. I know when I call screaming to the retention department they usually throw me some goodies.

 

[tboy]

I feel your pain CG, I hate it when our government agencies designed to protect us cowtow to big business.

I think the only way you can avoid siituations like this is to use a provider who doesn't use any existing big business's infrastructure. ie: shaw cable etc.

I received this notice from Bell:

"Effective February 28, 2011, an extreme usage fee of $1.00 per GB for usage exceeding 300GB per month will apply. This change will not likely affect you given your current usage level."

I don't use anywhere near that amount but the dollar value is a lot less than the one you were quoted.

You could look at it another way: what is the value of all the movies (porn) you download every month? If you figure each movie (porn) is worth about $10.00 each, that's $1000.00 per month you save. Maybe it's tiime to be more selective in what you download?

A buddy of mine back in the napster (free) days used to do a search for say, Madonna, and then highlight every song that came up in the search, and download them all, even duplicates, low quality, misnamed, everything. It's people like that who ruin it for everyone. If he wasn't downloading 100 gb of songs every month, maybe they wouldn't be requesting limits be placed on downloading? This kind of reminds me of all you can eat buffets: there are some who will go and eat a reasonable amount and some who will pile a mountain of food onto their plate then only eat a small portion of what they've taken, and throw the rest out. If enough people do that sooner or later the restaurant will either have to charge more, or lessen the quality.

I disagree totally with the throttling however. If you're paying for 12 mb/s download it shouldn't matter if you're downloading music, movies (porn), or google maps. If you pay for 12 mb/s you should receive 12 mb/s. To me that's no better than going to a gas station and choosing super and then finding out you're only getting regular since you have a larger gas tank.

 

[Fullthrottle]

It's amazing how people adapt to higher pricing. Remember the first time gas went over a buck? Remember all the media, talk show hosts and the general public all complaining? it hit a buck thirty and sent the economy into a tail spin even in Ontario. Look at it now, up to almost a buck twenty and not a peep. The companies/governments know this Canadian trait and take full advantage of it.

 

[tboy]

I don't know that it's a necessarily canadian trait, I think most people are resigned to the fact that prices will continue to rise in just about every aspect of our lives.

I honestly think that there will come a point where the general population will have enough of government taxation, cowtowing to big business, the rich getting richer etc and there will be a revolt. Not necessarily a violent one, but maybe an economic one. For eg: everyone boycotting a particular supplier (in this case Bell) to the point where they will have to do something to save their falling share prices. I know many big corps are feeling it now hence the development of "retention depts".

A prime example of people being at witt's end with politicians is the recent election of Rob Ford. He is in no way your typical politician. I think he realized people's frustration and stepped in at the right time.

Another example is the crop of new, reasonably priced cellphone providers. They are eeking out a toehold on the market and if given the chance, and the right management, they'll put a serious dent in the monopoly that the big providers have had for the past decade. I just wish people would smarten up and realize that the only way to break this stranglehold is to sign on. My father is a prime example. He was complaining about the high cost of his cell plan. I said "you're always in the city, go with wind". His answer? "I don't know how long they'll be around". I said "who cares? If they are only around for a year, and you will pay half of what you're paying rogers for that year, you've saved hundreds of dollars". "but what happens if they fold"? I said "who cares? You're saying if a gas retailer came to market selling shell gas at 50 cents a litre you wouldn't buy it because they might not be around for 10 yrs? get real, you'd buy ALL your gas there and enjoy the savings until they either raise their prices or go out of business".

I don't think this revolution will happen in my lifetime but there's a storm on the horizon and it's going to be a doozy......

 

[Fullthrottle]

You should watch the Jesse Ventura's Conspiracy Theory TV show which investigates global warming and lays out a plot in which entails one world government and total control of our global resources and using global warming as an excuse to make huge profits.

I find Jesse to be a bit of a blowhard but this episode actually made a lot of sense.

 

[Cycleguy007]

Classic bait and switch scams...

Politicians, utility co's & big business do this all the time... Say they need to raise prices/ taxes by 10%, then there's a media frenzy, and they end up settling on 5%, and every one thinks they're getting a deal! :roll:

Stupid thing about it in THIS case... it doesn't cost ANYMORE due to the content loaded... the infrastructure and expenses are all the same... It is simply a means to gouge for more $$$$

At least in the case of gas, water, hydro, there is more expense involved... but not in this case. Its simply a cash grab.

 

[Esco!]

Classic bait and switch scams...

Politicians, utility co's & big business do this all the time... Say they need to raise prices/ taxes by 10%, then there's a media frenzy, and they end up settling on 5%, and every one thinks they're getting a deal! :roll:

Stupid thing about it in THIS case... it doesn't cost ANYMORE due to the content loaded... the infrastructure and expenses are all the same... It is simply a means to gouge for more $$$$

Are you saying BELL has lied to the CRTC then??
Cause their main argument was it costs more to deliver more bandwidth to users who use more bandwidth.

It wouldnt surprise me if they did lie

 

[tboy]

Well, I know the load on servers is higher because more data is going through with more people doing it therefore you'd need faster servers with more capacity.

Now I'm not 100% sure of this but the only time the connection is actually in use is when you're actually sending or receiving bits of information. ie: when a page is loading, or you're downloading something (porn). You can tell by the in/out lights on your modem/router. When they're flashing? something is going up, or down.

Now with that being said, since not everyone is uploading or downloading at one time, the connection is shared and the ISP wouldn't need to use servers that can handle everyone being constantly upl'ing or dling. Think of it like your water: You're connected all the time but you're only using water when someone turns on the tap. The city doesn't produce enough water for everyone to use all their appliances/taps/showers at once.

With all that being said the cost is minimal. You can build a high capacity server for peanuts. Like Long Distance. It's a complete rip off because there really is no such thing as long distance any longer.

 

[treefort]

No personal experience with Teksavvy but this link may be helpful:

https://www.dslreports.com/forum/teksavvy

 

[Craven Morehead]

This article in the Toronto Star explains the situation well. Teksavvy is also cited in the article.

 

[Trump]

CG, based on CM's article you are out of luck?? I'm curious if you have resolved your internet issue?

 

[Cycleguy007]

Not yet... still negotiating...

I wrote to Primus explaining my situation as follows:

About 1 1/2 yrs ago I canceled all my Bell service in favour of Primus... the reason? Throttling and download limits that Bell was imposing on my internet usage...​

​

Now- YOU GUYS are introducing the same crap!​

​

Now, there is no reason to stay with Primus now is there???​

​

I am VERY disappointed in receiving this message.​

​

Not happy... and will be looking for service elsewhere as a result.​

Followed by:

Well... that didn't take long...​

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Are you going to reconsider this gouging or am I switching my service yet again.
​

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Please advise.​

I finally got a response saying they were sympathetic to my situation and that they could offer me an additional 120 GB of DL bandwidth for $10/ month...

Based on this, and Techsavvy's less than pristine track record... I'll probably accept this. I have till Feb 1st...

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