# Rogers is doubling the $25 max overage charge for internet use as of March 1st.



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Rogers is doubling the $25 max overage charge for internet use as of March 1st.



> Max over charges DOUBLING to $50 in March for all tiers!!!
> 
> Yup that's right.
> 
> ...


Max over charges DOUBLING to $50 in March for all tiers!!! - dslreports.com





> According to my simple math.. Rogers customers pay *$4.69* per megabit for Express with a 60GB cap, Bell customers pay *$3.49* per megabit with a 50 GB cap. ( comparing the Rogers 10Mbit VS Bell 12 Mbit services). According to the 2008 ITIF Broadband rankings Japanese customers pay an average of *13* cents per megabit with avg max speeds of 63 megabits!! Sure they do have caps but setup very differently, 30 GB per day of UPLOAD, not download.. It seems to me that both Rogers and Bell are practicing some pretty shady business when they set caps then increase the fees for overages in a time when there is so much rich SD/HD quality content being made available on the net ( some of which is provided by them) and I'm not talking about torrent downloads more so the increasing number of sites that stream/ avail download HD quality video Podcasts, not to mention youtube. Such practices will surely cause stagnation in the growth of this "new media" in our country as internet access is slowly becoming too expensive to be used to its fullest potential.


Rogers overage charges doubling - Page 2 - Digital Forum

http://www.itif.org/files/2008BBRankings.pdf

Study concludes Canadian broadband is too expensive and too slow


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

I must be missing something here....  The solution seems blindingly simple - don't overuse the limits of your contract !!


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## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Saw that post coming.
The increase in overage charges is not directly about cost to Rogers for bandwidth. It's an attempt to push high usage customers into more expensive tiers. When a company is in a semi-monopolistic position, customers need to be aware of major changes to the contract terms.


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

It was meant to be with respect to the user. The marketplace needs a severe shakeup, but currently that isn't an option w.r.t. users. No offense intended.


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## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Isn't it interesting how Rogers just added "Rogers on Demand Online" streaming video to it's list of services about a month ago?
Rogers On Demand online service will count towards the bandwidth cap.



> Rogers High Speed Internet customers should note that the Rogers On Demand online service will count towards their bandwidth cap meaning a high quality feed could use up a gigabyte of bandwidth in just over two hours.


Rogers on Demand online launches next week : Digital Home




> The new service requires you to sign up with your Rogers account and only gives you access to shows that you already subscribe to in your cable package. That means it's most likely to be used to catch up with a show you've missed, or perhaps let you illicitly watch TV at work. (It will also be a huge hit with kids who have lost control of the remote in the living room but wield absolute power over the family computer.)
> 
> You still have to watch ads, though as with most things online, there are fewer commercials than on TV, with many of them running at the beginning of episodes.


Rogers on Demand Online, but who'll demand it? - thestar.com



> In the past Rogers has claimed that bandwidth caps and overage fees were necessary to stay profitable, however, it is unclear how the company can make profits from earlier ultra-lite customers who have a 60GB cap but find it necessary to charge new ultra-lite customers who download 14GB of data a month a whopping $76 a month!


Rogers Cable to hike Internet overage fees by 100%! : Digital Home


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## i-rui (Sep 13, 2006)

rgray said:


> I must be missing something here....  The solution seems blindingly simple - don't overuse the limits of your contract !!



the problem also lies with rogers bandwidth warnings. I always get my 75% warning, but out of the 4 or 5 times i've gone over i've received my 100% warning ONCE.

The other times I didn't know i went over until i got my bill. On those occasions i had to call up and complain. They would eventually reverse the charges, but it always took time out of my day.

Their bandwidth tracking system is one or two days BEHIND your actual usage. So if you go over your limit in the last few days of the billing period you DON'T get a warning telling you you're over..... and continue to use your bandwidth without worry.

It's a flawed system that simply doesn't work.


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

^^^

I just don't get it...

Why aren't you guys monitoring your own usage?

Counting on Rogers is just 'dropping the ball'.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Me neither, I just go to my online Telus account every few days and see where my data usage stands.

My iPhone tracks it as well.


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## i-rui (Sep 13, 2006)

rgray said:


> ^^^
> 
> I just don't get it...
> 
> ...


??

how can i track it if the rogers control panel is always 2 days behind?


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

i-rui said:


> ??
> 
> how can i track it if the rogers control panel is always 2 days behind?


That's like depending on the fox to tell you when the hen house is under attack. Don't you know what you are downloading?


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## i-rui (Sep 13, 2006)

rgray said:


> That's like depending on the fox to tell you when the hen house is under attack. Don't you know what you are downloading?


So i'm supposed to keep track of every click on every website i browse, the images each page loads, every streaming video, every system software update, every application update, every torrent i have running over 4 computers in my house as well as every digital download content from itunes & Apple TV, ALL online gaming & online connections on a PS3, Any system updates for a slingbox & slingcatcher, plus my iphone wifi usage, as well as any friends who come over and use my guest wifi network?

That would be a full time job. For several people.


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

i-rui said:


> So i'm supposed to keep track of every click on every website i browse, the images each page loads, every streaming video, every system software update, every application update, every torrent i have running over 4 computers in my house as well as every digital download content from itunes & Apple TV, ALL online gaming & online connections on a PS3, Any system updates for a slingbox & slingcatcher, plus my iphone wifi usage, as well as any friends who come over and use my guest wifi network?
> 
> That would be a full time job. For several people.


It's your usage - - it's you @$$... Depending on Rogers is just dumb...


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## i-rui (Sep 13, 2006)

rgray said:


> It's your usage - - it's you @$$... Depending on Rogers is just dumb...


I know it's my usage. where did i ever say it wasn't?

My point is there ISN'T a way to independently & reliably track usage because data is all over the place. How many k is loaded on this page we're viewing right now? It probably changes every view because a different google ad is loaded. Multiply that variant a thousand times for every web page viewed.

How much data is transferred while viewing a youtube video? again that would be specific to each video, there isn't some golden math formula that will figure this out.

The only way to reliably track data would be to access the rogers modem usage (which i'm unaware of any way to outside of the rogers control panel). I briefly looked into trying to track internet usage through my airport extreme but i wasn't able to find a way.

If anyone knows a way i'd be all ears (sincerely)

But simply saying it's my responsibly to track my internet data usage shows a real naivety on how data usage works.


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## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Obviously, it's in Roger's interest to not give an accurate, up to date accounting of how close to the cap you are. $$$$

When you have a duopoly in the marketplace the option to choose is removed from the consumer. It is up to government to ensure that the ISPs are regulated and that consumer rights are safeguarded. Fair pricing with services to match world ISPs is what Canadians should be demanding from our MPs.


Many cell phone plans credit you for unused minutes. We should be credited with unused download credits. 

It's time for the government to institute an Internet users bill of rights in Canada.


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## Jason H (Feb 1, 2004)

Ottawaman said:


> Obviously, it's in Roger's interest to not give an accurate, up to date accounting of how close to the cap you are. $$$$
> 
> When you have a duopoly in the marketplace the option to choose is removed from the consumer. It is up to government to ensure that the ISPs are regulated and that consumer rights are safeguarded. Fair pricing with services to match world ISPs is what Canadians should be demanding from our MPs.
> 
> ...


+1

I'd love to have a choice for anything in Canada. I hate rogers, and I hate bell. If Telus had internet service in my area I'd get that!

Rogers bandwidth tracking is worthless, and well, everything with rogers is just worthless!


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## simon (Nov 2, 2002)

I currently have Rogers Extreme Package that allows for 95GB of traffic ... last month I was moving around more files than I usually do plus the other usual uses I found with 10 days to go in the month that I was already 20GB over my limit (I ended up being over 35GB over the limit for the month for $25 extra on the bill)

Well, I figured I might as well bump up my service to Extreme Plus for $10 more a month - this way my new limit is 125GB and I get 1.5X the download speed than what I have now. So I called Rogers and jumped through the hoops to get someone to switch my package and what do you know - this service is not available in my area. Like what?

Considered the way Rogers operates, I can see this happening more often than not - why bump someone up a package for $10 when you can take then for $50 everytime


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

I'm with an independent ISP, TekSavvy, and I've attached my average monthly bandwidth for the past 6 months, just for kicks. I consider myself a heavy user, but not extreme. I can't fathom having under 100GB/month included at the basic rate. My basic plan includes 200GB, and through an arrangement I have another 200GB included, for a 400GB quota.

With regards to accurately tracking your own usage, it's impossible with most consumer-grade routers. AirPorts provide no utility for that, and all others reset ever time the router is restarted. I run Tomato on mine, and have it back up the usage statistics to my file server. Further, there's a 15% or so overhead that's included in DSL, which is counted on your ISP's end, but not on the consumer's end - just another opportunity for discrepancies and additional fees.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Seems to me there are three solutions available:

1. Seek out and patronise services that give you the highest amount of "traffic" for your dollar. When a market is underserved, a new one pops up to cater to the masses. Ah, capitalism!
2. Shut down all your torrents and other P2P services. This step alone will almost guarantee that you never exceed your bandwidth cap.
3. Suck it up sunshine and pay the extra cost. You're using more bandwidth than you should, OR you're trying to go cheap on a package when you obviously need to move up a tier.


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## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

> *Study concludes Canadian broadband is too expensive and too slow*
> Posted by digitalhome on October 16, 2009
> A study released this week by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School this week, which compared broadband service across thirty OECD countries has concluded that Canada’s is lagging most developed countries in critical broadband measures.
> Despite high penetration rates, researchers found Canada to rank low on critical measures such as download speeds, 3G mobile Next Generation Connectivity and most importantly, pricing.
> ...


Study concludes Canadian broadband is too expensive and too slow : Digital Home


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## Amiga2000HD (Jan 23, 2007)

rgray said:


> ^^^
> 
> I just don't get it...
> 
> ...


I've got Rogers and I know what my usage is so there's no problem there. However, I don't know what my roommate's usage is. On an individual basis, when you know that nobody else is using your connection, tracking your own usage works but once you introduce other people in your household that use the internet, it become's more difficult.

For example, if someone's teenager's home from school on March break and downloads a movie each day, that could bump the internet usage from close to the threshold to over it for that month and cause a nasty surprise when the bill comes.


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## Manatus (May 11, 2009)

Amiga2000HD said:


> I've got Rogers and I know what my usage is so there's no problem there. However, I don't know what my roommate's usage is. On an individual basis, when you know that nobody else is using your connection, tracking your own usage works but once you introduce other people in your household that use the internet, it become's more difficult.
> 
> For example, if someone's teenager's home from school on March break and downloads a movie each day, that could bump the internet usage from close to the threshold to over it for that month and cause a nasty surprise when the bill comes.


No, but there's nothing to tell you that someone's teenager has been calling long-distance all March break to talk to their friends, either (and that can be a lot more). Once you get into the realm of downloading movies and things like that, I think it's kind of the same thing, you have to stop pretending that your Internet is "unlimited". I'd rather that more people have access to cheaper, basic Internet, rather than subsidizing extreme users - it's more ridiculous that the ultra-lite plan from Rogers is $26, somehow.


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## RUserious (Mar 7, 2010)

chas_m said:


> Seems to me there are three solutions available:
> 
> 1. Seek out and patronise services that give you the highest amount of "traffic" for your dollar. When a market is underserved, a new one pops up to cater to the masses. Ah, capitalism!
> 2. Shut down all your torrents and other P2P services. This step alone will almost guarantee that you never exceed your bandwidth cap.
> 3. Suck it up sunshine and pay the extra cost. You're using more bandwidth than you should, OR you're trying to go cheap on a package when you obviously need to move up a tier.


Sorry pal, but if everyone in this country had YOUR logic we would be paying $500 a month for dial-up.. The fact of the matter is THIS.. Internet is now the most main stream entertainment medium in the WORLD, and on a per capita basis Canada has the 2nd largest market saturation rate in the WORLD! So you have Rogers, who has built their entire business on BANDWIDTH.. Home Phone, Cable, Wireless DATA, Internet and well it costs money to sustain and build that network but instead of absorbing the cost out of their 5 billion dollar surplus in revenue they off put it to the consumer.

To put this in perspective, SMALL business ISP solutions are offering prices around 38/mo for 6-8Mbs D/L and 800Kb/s upload with UNLIMITED bandwidth... and I have rogers charging me 59.99 for 10down and 1 up with 95GB usage cap... PLEASE man, this is 2010 and EVERYTHING is done online..


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