Branding David

As many of you may or may not know, Canada really only has two main Internet service providers: Bell and Rogers. There are many companies that resell services on Bell or Rogers network, but there are no major competitors, Canada-wide, that compete with these two large companies.

Today, I received a letter from Rogers that my Internet service price is going to go up by $5.05. From $54.95 per month to $59.99 per month. While this might not seem substantial to most people, it frustrates me because just a few months ago, they added bandwidth caps, and overage fees.

The bandwidth cap for my tier of service is ninety-five gigabytes. This sounds like an immense amount until you consider the following:

• My wife and I have an Internet telephony service which we use regularly
• My wife and I watch television through the Internet
• I work online on various projects, some requiring multimedia
• I use online services to back up important files off site
• I upload pictures and videos to the web, as well as co-host a podcast each week
• Between my wife and I we do a fair amount of web browsing

In a typical day, I probably send and receive around five gigabytes of data. The key here being send and receive, as bandwidth caps aren’t just how much you download, but also how much you upload.

Five gigabytes per day, around thirty days per month, and you come to a figure of 150 gigabytes per month, or 55 gigabytes more than I am allowed under the fee I pay each month. I then have to pay around $1 per GB in overage fees to a maximum of $25, which I basically hit each month, bringing my monthly bill, after taxes to around $90 per month.

Increasing that by five dollars will bring me closer to the $100 per month mark that I will have to dish out just to have access to the Internet.

Rogers doesn’t seem to understand that we are in a recession.

My original thought was that by doing everything through the Internet rather than having basic Cable, and a real dedicated phone line, I would save money, and while this is still mostly true, it has become a real frustration for me to see my monthly bill creeping up so high for what is comparatively in the world, slow and expensive Internet access.

In the letter Rogers states, “We’re continually investing in our network and technology so that you can enjoy the very latest communication and entertainment services.”

While I applaud that they want to bring us the best service possible, isn’t that what our normal monthly rate should have been used towards?

I am confused about the fact that they think it is okay to raise their prices during a down economy. Can anyone afford another $60 per year in Internet charges for no increase in service, no increase in speed, all the while living under restrictive bandwidth cap limitations?

Bell has set their bandwidth cap to 100 GB, and their overage charges cap at $30 per month, meaning they are no better when it comes to a monthly rate than Rogers currently is, and no doubt, as Rogers increases their service costs, Bell will follow suit if they feel the need, as they have an opportunity to close the gap in price without leaving an option for people to leave and go to their competitor.

Of course, I would love to go with another company, but as I have said near the top, there is no real competition in Canada, and as such, I have no real recourse but to pay my bills, and be frustrated.