What some people seem to forget, is that it costs money to provide bandwidth, both for up front capital costs and ongoing expenses. Resellers, such as Teksavey have to pay the major ISPs or carriers, in some manner, for that bandwidth. The options are flat rate or some sort of measured or metered service. Flat rate, as has often been demonstrated, can often lead to abuse of services. With measured, the costs may be higher or lower than flat rate, depending on usage. Also, if the ISPs, such as Teksavey, don't want to pay Bell measured usage, they can always install their own equipment in Bell offices and make other arrangements for bandwidth. In the telecom world, metered usage has been the norm for a long time. It's only North American telephones and now internet access that have been the exception. Even with cell phones and some internet access we buy blocks of bandwidth or minutes each month. This is a form of measured or metered service.Wow, CRTC, guess who will end up paying for that?
Bandwidth and usage are two different things.What some people seem to forget, is that it costs money to provide bandwidth
It's the CRTC that forced the telephone and cable companies to share their systems with independent ISPs in the first place. Without that, there would be no other choices for high speed internet.The CRTC is truly an enemy of the Canadian people.
What about 200GB plans?Customers of smaller ISPs such as Teksavvy and Execulink who signed up for service before Feb. 1, 2007, will be "grandfathered," where their unlimited usage plans will be honoured.
The CRTC could have balanced this with forcing Bell to provide faster plans. Without that, independent ISPs will be in trouble soon. In addition, $1.12/GB is punitive. Even Bell set it's usage rates at $0.25/GB to retail customer not long ago.Customers using the fastest connections of five megabits per second, for example, will have a monthly allotment of 60 GB, beyond which Bell will charge $1.12 per GB to a maximum of $22.50.
It's been proven that bandwidth costs next to nothing. Bell is just trying to stop a mass exodus of customers caused by it's own incompetence and customer gouging. Yes, infrastructure costs money but Bell is upgrading that to provide IPTV and other services that are more lucrative than wholesaling internet service. Compared to what IPTV will use, internet is almost insignificant. Bell also wants to limit the inroads of competing services, such as Netflix and IP telephone. This is an anti-competitive move on the part of Bell, with full blessings from the CRTC, that would not be allowed many other democratic countries.What some people seem to forget, is that it costs money to provide bandwidth
Hmmm... I originally signed up with Execulink in late 2006, but changed to a Digital Phone bundle in January 2008, am I grandfathered? It will interesting to find out, but I hope so.Customers of smaller ISPs such as Teksavvy and Execulink who signed up for service before Feb. 1, 2007, will be "grandfathered," where their unlimited usage plans will be honoured. The CRTC did, however, give Bell the right to periodically raise rates on grandfathered plans in order to urge customers on to metered services.
That article was about metering at the ISP level i.e. Teksavey etc. buying bandwitdth from Bell. You can be sure the aggregate usage from all the ISPs customers will be far more continuous than a single home user. This means they're talking about traffic loads, where usage, at any given will be some significant portion of available bandwidth. Also, it's peak load that drives the cost.Bandwidth and usage are two different things.
It's true that it's very cheap, but it's not free. One way or another Bell's customers have to pay for the capacity they use. One way is flat rate and the othe is metered. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Measured is not wrong, as it has long been the most common billing method. For example, in other parts of the world, even local phone calls were metered. With the old Telex network every minute of use was measured for billing. With data circuits, you could pay a flat rate for exclusive use of the bandwidth or by usage with dial up or packet swithced networks. Why should the internet be any different? Don't forget, usage based billing may result in lower bills for some months. As an example, I took advantage of that recent $30/6GB deal from Rogers for my phone. I have never come close to using that amount. Under usage based billing, I might save on data costs. The same situation occurs with my data limit on my internet account. One other possibility, would be stepped plan levels, as we have with smart phones, where you buy whatever block size you expect you'll be using and then pay extra for going over. However, it's still a form of usage based billing.It's been proven that bandwidth costs next to nothing
This sort of thing is a real problem and a separate issue from the billing method. Companies like Bell and Rogers should be required to handle their own services under exactly the same terms as competitors. This is a very good reason for separating transport providers from content providers. As I've mentioned before, down in Wellington N.Z., basic ethernet connectivity is a basic utility. The customer then arranges for whatever internet or other access from the provider of their choice.Bell also wants to limit the inroads of competing services, such as Netflix and IP telephone.
There are two parts to this. One is line access to the customer and the other is bandwidth to the internet. Some ISPs buy bandwidth from Bell and uses Bell's DSLAM. Others provide their own DSLAM in the Bell CO and make other arrangements for bandwidth. I set up some DSLAMs for Sprint (before Rogers bought them) in Bell COs and Sprint provided their own bandwidth, only using Bell's copper pairs to reach the customer.What people are also overlooking here is that independent ISPs already pay Bell for bandwidth.
I didn't mention that since the ruling does not address it. Since it has been mentioned, why is it that Teksavvy has no issues providing 200GB and unlimited data services for less money than Bell's 60GB service? Could it be that bandwidth and data really are dirt cheap and not a scarce as Bell claims? Why is it that Teksavvy charges a flat rate of 10 to 25 cents per GB for excess usage instead of over a dollar? Teksavvy pays both Bell and their internet backbone provider for that data so the true cost must be well under 25 cents per GB, probably much lower at Bell's end. If excess data use was billed at 10 cents per GB by Bell, I would have little issue with it. As implemented, this ruling is an independent ISP killer.the other is bandwidth to the internet
Bull...Also, it's peak load that drives the cost.
'Fraid not. That is the case with with many services. For example, when you use electricity, you pay for the amount you use, but the utilities have to build the network to carry the peak load, even though average load may be well below that. A significant portion of your hydro bill goes to paying for that network. This is why they're trying to encourage users to shift their load to off peak times. With telecom, a circuit, be it fibre, twisted pair, coax etc., will have some maximum bandwidth that cannot be exceeded. The cost of installing that equipment and medium does not change with the amount of data carried. That cable in the ground cost just as much to lay whether it's used at 100% capacity or not at all. Capital costs and other non load related expenses are a significant portion of your bill.Bull...
Power generation does not compare to generating bits. The analogy falls flat.For example, when you use electricity, you pay for the amount you use, but the utilities have to build the network to carry the peak load, even though average load may be well below that.