The limited power of the cable (13)
Denis Canuel, from Quebec Valley, is ranting about videotron’s new 100Gb limit for its Extreme internet subscribers (post in french). First, he says that limited plans are a thing of the past. But what I found more interesting was the second part, where he shows that there is actually a need for more bandwdith. If you haven’t noticed, 2007 is the year of web video, with startups like Joost or Babelgum bringing new TV/video services, iTMS pushing movies on its online store, the Apple TV, videoconference on upcoming Leopard, and of course youtube becoming as ubiquitous as Google. Video games now also expect an Internet connection (World of Warcraft, XBox Live!…) . As you can see, this is not the time to limit the bandwidth. Ironically, Videotron still calls the plan unlimited, as fagstein points out, and if you go past the 100Gb limit, there is no warning — until you get the month’s receipt.
I am sure some of you are already thinking about Bell, but you should check out first Hugh McGuire recent’s problems. And I also know Bell is using heavily traffic shappers, at least in my neighborhood, which prevents subscribers from using P2P services à la BitTorrent. It seems that Bell and Videotron have ruled out power users and now targets only their services to the average Joe, who uses Hotmail, spend some time on MSN Messenger, and the rest of the time on text-based message boards.
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which sounds like we are going back to the early 2000’s. I think now is the time for a new telecom company to step up and offer a decent and unlimited plan.
Update: I couldn’t find the link yesterday but there is a very interesting article on the subject: bandwidth crisis. It says that cable companies are reaching saturation point because of video, and that they will get killed soon by HD programming. Maybe that’s why Videotron is introducing the limit, they might have already reached saturation
Bell is “so limited” that it was always down and crashing at the office. We had a FULL DAY of downtime about a month ago. I had to cancel my contract and go with Videotron. Unfortunately, there’s a serious lack of competition here.
Only tangentially related to the post but I’d guess there are way more “average Joes” watching loads of Youtube and Tête à claques videos than there are using text based message boards ;)
Transfer limits, port blocking, traffic shaping… why are the biggest companies providing the worst service? Why does videotron seem to think false advertising (umm… a 100gb limit isn’t “unlimited” a**hole idiots) is okay? Why isn’t there a single affordable wireless data plan (GPRS, EDGE, 3G) in Canada? What is up with our data? Why are we stuck in the past? Why do we SUCK SO HARD? Why aren’t any service providers pushing the envelope?
@Tux: “Why aren’t any service providers pushing the envelope?”
Because there’s a serious lack of competition. And that’s in just about everything.
Did you know that a parfait is $1 at McDonald’s in the USA, but that it costs $2.29 here? Why? Because there’s more competition in the fast food industry in the USA.
Just about everything is more expensive than it should in Canada. It is indeed very frustrating.
patrick. right. but if it’s the case, it’s another reason why videotron should not limit the bandwidth.
tux. i dont know. i know a guy who wanted to start a cellphone company here. he had the funds to do it, but apparently the CRTC said otherwise. i would say the governements arent doing enough to push the envelope, companies arent pushing enough.
carl mercier: i have less problems with Bell — the thing is that Bell is perfect until you have a problem and then it’s quite impossible to do anything once you get in touch with their customer support. when i moved out, they continued to send me receipts for 5 months for the old account for $4. each month, someone would tell me they would fix it.
anyway, i am not sure now what we can do. I don’t think videotron or bell are going to change their policies after reading this post. the best maybe write a petition to the CRTC.
Someone ought to organize some kind of community effort to depose Bell and Videotron. I know there are other DSL companies in town, but is no one really competing with the big boys? Doesn’t seem so, but I think people would switch in droves if there was a cheaper, faster, less limited service, with technical support hopefully NOT staffed by binder-reading low-achievers, Indians, or robots. With all the tech and money in Montreal, surely SOME person with money/influence can see the opportunity… meanwhile, now I’ve gotta count my gigs. :\
Heri: Bell’s been perfect at home for many years, but we literally started calling them “Hell” here at the office :)
tux: The community effort should be oriented to the next spectrum auction and pressuring the government to set aside space for new entrants, to bolster competition.
carl: In the McDonalds example, I don’t know about parfaits but for chicken nuggets for example, yes they are cheaper in the states, they also taste like shit (more than here), there are more regulations here for food, that also affects price.
But you’re right, not enough competition for broadband.
Tux: i agree the situation sucks. it reminds me what happenned in france. 10 years ago, there was france telecom who ruled the telecom landscape in that country, france was lagging with practically noone having high speed internet. What happenned was that entrepreneurs came, mainly from the construction industry (for instance Bouygues), and they invested millions to offer affordable plans, and yet very advantageous for consumers. Nowadays, France is one of the most advanced in telecom in Europe, customers get quadruple play services (ie digital TV, hi-speed internet, VOIP telephony, and cell phone) at a monthly fee still lower than you get for videotron’s extreme service.
i am not saying that entrepreneurs from the construction industry should do the same in québec, but that the situation can change. it only takes one company to shake those dinosaurs.
I’ve switched between Bell and Videotron a few times. Videotron blocks port 80 and if you read their contract you aren’t allowed to run *any* form of server whatsoever. So technically I’m not even allowed to test my code at home. After a few tries I’m back with Bell, and I have to say I don’t notice any manipulation of my downloads. but I also know their service isn’t consistent from one area to the next.
chris lamothe: i dont get it. were you able to setup a home web server with Bell??? i find it highly unlikely, even if they open port 80. ADSL customers are assigned a dynamic IP.
@heri: i ran a web server at home for years with bell (port 443 ssl, not sure if i had port 80 open). dynamic ips are not a problem, just update them with a service like zoneedit. dynamic IPs very rarely change anyways. Of course, this server was extremely low traffic, not sure i’d have done the same thing if I was MySpace.
sigh. i don’t know exactly what the CRTC is supposed to be doing, but by objective measures (that is, Canada’s rankings for digital/mobile access) we are doing poorly. especially wrt to the cutting edge of innovation - ie big juicy broadband and mobile data.
at least bell and videotron haven’t merged yet. god, imagine that nightmare.
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