Canadians have been faced with deteriorating bandwidth caps for years now, but a recent decision by countries telecommunications regulator has put the final nail in the coffin for heavy users. Most of the countries large established Cable and DSL providers have been offering caps that range anywhere from 25-80GB for quite some time now, but those in search higher limits have always had the option to turn to the smaller ISP’s which offered higher or unlimited plans to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Last week however, the CRTC sided with Bell Canada who asked the regulator to implement the same caps on smaller wholesale customers, which essentially ends the era of unlimited bandwidth in Canada. To put this in perspective, a typical 5Mbps plan from a DSL reseller in the Toronto area cost about $40 for unlimited service as of last week, a plan which has been replaced today by a $32 package which grants a mere 25GB per month.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada joins Australia and New Zealand as one of three member countries where unlimited Internet service is practically impossible to find, and a lack of competition means this won’t be getting better anytime soon. Bandwidth caps in the US haven’t yet reached this level of oppression, but it’s the start of a disturbing trend that could very well make its way across the border eventually. Canadians who wish to fight the decision should check out the Open Media petition which, at last count, was over 137,000 strong.
