Canada to Introduce Internet Usage-Based Billing

[aurik]

I already suggested it. I pay for 50mb of bandwidth, you let me use my 50mb of bandwidth as I see fit. Problem. Fucking. Solved.

This is essentially metered billing. In your case, you're saying that we should pay for our theoretical maximum usage (24 hours * X mbps in your case) instead of actual usage, ok, fine by me, but that's still metered billing.

Personally I'd go with a company that sold me a package which was a maximum number of bits per month, with a promised minimum quality of service (ie, Y GB per month, minimum data transfer rate of Z mpbs at any time), because it's going to end up that they can get higher %usage out of the same hardware and thus charge less for nearly the same quality of service.

There is no reason to mention this other than to be a douchebag, which is bizarre because you know I outrank you in terms of "comp sci degree", but I don't mention it, because you and I both know it's not fucking relevant and only goes to a lame attempt to impress other people who don't know better than me.

You mean there was no reason other than the fact that you called into question my credentials by calling me uninformed.

[rog]

Personally I'd go with a company that sold me a package which was a maximum number of bits per month, with a promised minimum quality of service (ie, Y GB per month, minimum data transfer rate of Z mpbs at any time), because it's going to end up being more efficient and thus they can get higher %usage out of the same hardware and thus charge less for nearly the same quality of service.

Sounds great if you hardly use it.

Except not really, since pretty much every single company that uses usage based pricing is either stupidly expensive, or stupidly slow, depending on the package. And if all you do is email, or something, and don't need decent speeds or much bandwidth, then dial up is pretty cheap and would serve your needs just fine (are there still any free dial up services, or did they go away?).

[aurik]

Stupidly expensive is due to the failure to regulate the government-created monopoly.

Stupidly slow is because people are dumb and fall for maximum-rate guarantees when they should be demanding minimum rate guarantees.

[rog]

Stupidly slow is because people are dumb and fall for maximum-rate guarantees when they should be demanding minimum rate guarantees.

That, or because if you want a plan that offers a lower monthly usage cap, you also have to settle for a slower speed. If you don't use the internet much, lets say only 20 gb per month, you can't get a plan for 50 mbps with a 25 mb/month cap. You can either get 50 mbps with a 100 gb/month cap, or say 3 mbps with a 25 gb/mo cap. Or at least I've never heard of a company offering custom plans like that.

[Vaspinne]

Don't worry everyone, Prime Minister Stephen Harper tweeted that he would be investigating the CRTC's ruling. Problem solved.

To add a serious note to your sarcasm (I think it's sarcasm, I can never tell on the web >_>), the Liberals and the NDP have both come out opposing the CRTC ruling. And if Stephen Harper is actually investigating this, then there is actual reason to be optimistic that something positive will happen.

[Uzor]

Speaking of Internet, Telia (a Swedish provider) is currently underway with expanding and upgrading their optic fiber net to provide 1000 Mbit/s to their customers. I'm quite happy, I might upgrade.

[rog]

Oh what i would do to get that here.

[aurik]

That, or because if you want a plan that offers a lower monthly usage cap, you also have to settle for a slower speed. If you don't use the internet much, lets say only 20 gb per month, you can't get a plan for 50 mbps with a 25 mb/month cap. You can either get 50 mbps with a 100 gb/month cap, or say 3 mbps with a 25 gb/mo cap. Or at least I've never heard of a company offering custom plans like that.

The only reason there's not much choice in plans....is precisely because of the monopoly over the last-mile connection that Bell/Rogers currently enjoy. If there was a system where competition was flourishing (either bust the monopoly or regulate it to hell), you would have lots of plans to choose from, and could choose whatever minimum service and overall data quantity fits your usage best. Wonderful thing called capitalism, the companies that serve you best will grow and survive, the terrible companies will wither and die.

Unfortunately because we have this monopoly, nobody can compete with the telco. Smaller 3rd party ISPs keep trying to grow but Bell/Rogers whacks them as soon as they pop up.

[Darus Grey]

This is essentially metered billing.

No, it's the difference between renting land(where you have unlimited reign to use it as you see fit within its boundries), and a water line, where you get a physical commodity through it.

To extend my (lol)analogy, we all know time-shares are a scam(pay for what I use!)

You mean there was no reason other than the fact that you called into question my credentials by calling me uninformed.

Which doesn't change the fact that it isn't relevant, a computer scientist does not a systems engineer make. So I don't know who you were trying to impress.

[aurik]

No, it's the difference between renting land(where you have unlimited reign to use it as you see fit within its boundries), and a water line, where you get a physical commodity through it.

To extend my (lol)analogy, we all know time-shares are a scam(pay for what I use!)

Allowing only pay-by-bandwidth-allocation (which is functionally the exact same as pay-by-theoretical-maximum-usage) is a bad idea unfortunately because it leads to woeful underutilization of capacity.

Not all time-shares are a scam.

Which doesn't change the fact that it isn't relevant, a computer scientist does not a systems engineer make. So I don't know who you were trying to impress.

It becomes relevant the moment you start calling into question my knowledge of how networks function. Maybe if you didn't want to know my credentials you shouldn't have asked.

Also I don't know what kind of loldegree you think I have, I took plenty of sr. level networking and hardware courses, worked a few years at a small company where a significant part of my responsibility was keeping our internal and external networks functional, responsive and secure, etc. I didn't graduate from some fucking 2 year associates course.

Once again, if you didn't want to know, more power to you, but for heaven sakes stop playing the "you don't know what you're talking about" card.

[orson]

I swear that the CRTC's sole purpose of late has been to protect the interests of these giant conglomerates and allow them to pretty much get away with whatever the fuck the want. People are saying fuck you to cable and land line service so our profits are going down? All of us "competing" TV/internet/Phone companies should jack up prices at the same time. Seriously the CRTC needs to either be dismantled almost completely or they need to get their heads out of their asses and protect the consumer from shitty monopolistic practices.

[Darus Grey]

Allowing only pay-by-bandwidth-allocation (which is functionally the exact same as pay-by-theoretical-maximum-usage) is a bad idea unfortunately because it leads to woeful underutilization of capacity.

Not all time-shares are a scam.




It becomes relevant the moment you start calling into question my knowledge of how networks function. Maybe if you didn't want to know my credentials you shouldn't have asked.

Also I don't know what kind of loldegree you think I have, I took plenty of sr. level networking and hardware courses, worked a few years at a small company where a significant part of my responsibility was keeping our internal and external networks functional, responsive and secure, etc. I didn't graduate from some fucking 2 year associates course.

Once again, if you didn't want to know, more power to you, but for heaven sakes stop playing the "you don't know what you're talking about" card.

Actually, I never did ask.

[Senoska]

http://i55.tinypic.com/qsm72d.jpg

This month for me. I'd be fucked. My work ALONE takes 100GB+ a month. Any multimedia shit I do on top of that would screw me.

[aurik]

Actually, I never did ask.

"I didn't ask what your qualifications were, I insinuated that you were underqualified!"

Dumbass.

[notorious bum]

What is this some internet pissing contest of sorts???

"Upcoming shittier service and higher costs with more idle bitching. Why some experts say what providers are doing is merely unsubstantiated price-gauging. News at 11:00!"

ITT: Sweden's e-Dick will always be bigger than yours.

[Darus Grey]

"I didn't ask what your qualifications were, I insinuated that you were underqualified!"

Dumbass.

Actually I never insinuated anything, I just flat out said you weren't informed; and I was correct. It's possible to possess credentials well still being ignorant, as such at no time did I imply that you were unqualified.

You just took it upon yourself to do some intellectual masturbation exhibition; letting us all know that you must be right because you possess a degree in a barely related field instead of letting your argument speak for itself.

Spoiler: show

Since I possess a PHD granted by our computer science department, does that make me MORE right than you? of course it doesn't, and I'd be retarded for suggesting that it does, just like you are for suggesting that yours does

You're the worst sort of people.

[Ragns]

People are jumping on conclusions way too fast on this news and been making up their own story.

This thing only applies to ISP resellers. In Canada the CRTC force big resellers to resell their internet access to a lower cost than what they charge to their own customers making it possible for small ISPs to use the infrastructure of big ISPs at a competitive price without taking into consideration the bandwidth used by the smaller ISPs.

This change allow big ISPs to charge fucking crazy impossible pricing for the bandwidth the smaller ISPs use giving an easy way for the bigger ISPs to make the smaller ISPs pricing uncompetitive with them.

But yeah even if this thing only applies to 5% of the Canadian internet users it still is retarded.

[aurik]

Actually I never insinuated anything, I just flat out said you weren't informed; and I was correct. It's possible to possess credentials well still being ignorant, as such at no time did I imply that you were unqualified.

You just took it upon yourself to do some intellectual masturbation exhibition; letting us all know that you must be right because you possess a degree in a barely related field instead of letting your argument speak for itself.

Since I possess a PHD granted by our computer science department, does that make me MORE right than you? of course it doesn't, and I'd be retarded for suggesting that it does, just like you are for suggesting that yours does

You're the worst sort of people.

Oh, sorry, you flat out challenged my expertise in the subject, that's much different than insinuating it, and completely different from asking what my expertise was in the subject. I would make a big long post about why I am actually right, and while I was doing that I'd probably also laugh at your compsci PHD (something along the lines of "grats on writing a dissertation on a topic that was probably half-obsolete by the time you defend it") but honestly I can't be bothered, mainly because I've already sufficiently defended my point of view, and the only thing you're attacking now is my credentials.

By the way, my expertise in the subject matter isn't justification for my opinion. I've never once said "I know what I am talking about, therefore I am right". The only reason I can fathom that you would actually bring it up is that you don't actually have any other logical way to poke holes in my arguments. Because certainly the only legitimate issues you've brought up I have addressed, and all you do is sputter about how I'm uninformed and when I point out I'm actually rather well informed, well, you start frothing at the mouth about nothing in particular instead.

Wanna talk about the worst sort of people? You're exhibit A. Maybe you can put your vaunted critical thinking to use once you put your ego in check.

[Darus Grey]

lol

[Kaisha]

All I have to say is, Bell's proposed metered shit is currently better than what my family is paying for even now. I'd kill for 25gb bandwidth that I can toss $5 at and nearly double.

Government really needs to step in and start enforcing some 'bare minimum' requirements for ISPs if they're going to stick with the existing system of making large profits off bandwidth packages.