Is Rogers’ Monthly Usage Allowance Enough Bandwidth?

I read the comments from your earlier Roger’s post. Proof again of John Gabriel’s Internet theory.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20040319h.jpg

You’re a brave man to revisit the subject, doutch bag.

I pay $26 for unlimited Bell Sympatico high-speed.

Rogers is always trying to figure out a way to stick it to their customers. Remember reverse billing. For example, Rogers got the exclusivity deal from Apple to sell iPhone because they were first to have a 3G network. The first thing they do is hike the rates to 2-4 times what AT&T is charging in the US. Only after 10,000’s of people signed an online petition did they retreat and drop the rate (and only for the first 6 months I must add). Their rate plan is a joke. My wife has the highest package for iPhone @ $150/month and her monthly bill is consistently $300/month . And, this isn’t from phone time. It’s data.

My point being…Rogers sucks.

Ryan, I’ve been called worse but you know that because you read the comments on my previous Rogers post.

Ian, I’m also with Bell and have their Bell Internet Performance package that is $37.95/month. At 7 Mbps it is plenty fast for my home-based business and the 60 GB cap hasn’t been reached yet. I don’t even know if Bell enforces this.

I have an iPhone 3G as well but have to use Rogers for this. Sounds like Rose is a heavy data user. $300/month? Ouch! Too bad there isn’t any competition yet in Canada.

Unfortunately, I am capped with Rogers at 60 gig a month. If I was not capped, I would easily use up to 100 gig each month, likely more.

Screw it.

I have the most expensive package rogers will sell me and I often go over my limit, I download all my entertainment, I dont have a cable subscription, so Movies, TV, Music, the works. I pay for a usenet account so I can download these things at insane speeds. I’ve gotten the 75GB Warning 4 days after the beginning of the billing period.

I get warned by rogers every other month or so, it sucks i hate rogers, wish there were more choices but in my area bell is extremely slow, so have no choice

Considering the speeds offered (up to 16 megabit), and the explosion in content available (games @ up to 25 GB each; movies and TV shows in HD quality, from sites including CTV, YouTube, iTunes and more; software updates like Linux DVDs at several gigabytes a time; etc, etc), the current Rogers caps are ludicrous. Sorry to pop your bubble, but if you find 60 GB/month adequate, you are most definitely NOT a “moderate to heavy” user. More like a featherweight.

The fact is that bandwidth should be getting cheaper. The wire is paid for and the switching technology is on a Moore’s-law curve. I’d say that a basic cap of about 250 GB would be bearable. (As of today; it should *increase* over time, not decrease!) Anything less than that is Rogers planting a stake in the turf, so that they can be sure to recoup the loss they’ll eventually take when content shifts from the *insanely* high-margin world of cable to the commodity-priced world of Internet downloads.

Which is the ultimate reason that everybody should be against caps, even if they’re not using their current allotment. This isn’t about today’s profits; it’s about monopolistic control over the entire future of home entertainment.

It isn’t enough. If I’m streaming TV shows off websites like the Comedy Network and CTV every day, playing video games, downloading software, etc. 60 gigs is not enough. The limit should be double that.

Well if Rogers is going to make you pay a max of $25 for going over the quota.
Then you might as well get your money’s worth.

I am on the 95 gig limit. I am hoping this month to download/upload as much as possible. I am on track for about 300 gig, I wish I could download 500 gig or even a 1 terabyte of data and then make them go oh CRAP.
This is an abuse of my account, as they have abused me as the customer with this limit! It’s pay back time.

There are better ISP’s out there. TECHSAVVY gives you 200 gig at around 30 dollars a month, this is about half of what rogers charges you.

Lessons have be learned here.

I would hope that many people read this post and do this to rogers also!
Decide one month to pay the max $25 and download like there is no tomorrow.

I say if they are going to charge you, make it worth it.

every damn month they say I go over, and i’m not nearly as bad as I was before - going over 120gb per month.. NOT only that bandwidth caps total upload, and all other network traffic.. which is annoying and unjust I think. If someone were to dos me, try multiple open port scans I would get charged for it. Not only that I’ve traced my downloads per month on torrent and usenets and they are never near the “allowance” on the rogers site. this month - after 4 days of next billing it already displayed a warning of being 75%. My downloads were (roughly) 30gb from torrents and only 5gb on usenet. So they’re has to be something wrong. This month I’m using a bandwidth checker and also next month. If they go over what my only working computer goes over I’m going to bitch and complain.. or go so far over the 25$ that (hopefully) something fries on their side.

I went over 25 Gb in 3 days and Rogers is now charging me extra 35 Dollars my plan is not the best i see now..

I’m now finding that 50 GB isn’t enough for my Bell account. I’ve gone over twice now. Part of the reason being that my stepdaughter is back at home and watches a lot of TV shows on YouTube (or so she tells me). I downloaded 1 episode of Mad Men from iTunes which is 1 GB right there.

I opted to pay an extra $5/month to give me extra bandwidth instead of paying $1.50/GB for going over my alloted 50 GB. I still have 12 days to go this month! It’s not enough.

How do I trace my online usage? I’m a senior and have never downloaded any movies or music, all I do is play Pogo or Facebook and each month I have an extra $50 of usage on my bill. I had 85 gb but recently changed it to 95 gb as I can not afford any usage charges for playing spades or poker anymore. Please email me regarding this matter.

I think the limit is ridiculous. It’s the end of 2010 now in canada and now everything is online. Between the advent of netflix which is 1 gig+ an hour for streaming, Using Steams game downloading client, xbox live and itunes, If my family were internet savvy we would hit the cap in days. As it is now it’s always a mind game of do I want to watch/ download this ,I could run out of gigs and have to pay overages.

Yeah so I’m not certain what quality movies you download. but legal movies aren’t as small as you’re suggesting, especially not the high definitions ones. Using Netflicks you most certainly cannot download 25 movies in high def without exceeding the cap on rogers. In nova scotia the cable companies offer 250gb caps…. Nova scotia… seriously rogers is the worst.

My boyfriend and I use the internet in our household. We both watch TV shows/youtube online, very occasionally download music, and occasionally play online video games. I didn’t think our usage was much more than an average couple, but I took a look at our usage and this is what I found:

Time period (3 months):
Nov 01, 2010 - Nov 30, 2010
Dec 01, 2010 -Dec 31, 2010
Jan 01, 2011 -Jan 30, 2011
Totals
GB Upstream 44.5
GB Downstream 299.1
Total 343.6

If I was charged for the amount I go over, I would be paying around $150 a month! I am a student and the BF is a highschool teacher. Both of us use the internet for all of our school work, research, and entertainment. At that price however, we would be in immense trouble.

It needs to be kept in mind that there are a lot of people who have the internet that don’t even come close to their usage. My mother uses roughly 11GB a month. My aunt uses less than that. When averaged over everyone, the average does not exceed the max. amount allotted.

With that being said, the ISPs are not losing money from internet usage. They may however, be losing money in less people purchasing television/home phone line services etc. because more and more people are watching TV online and forgoing home lines for cell phones.

Why though, should the consumer be penalized because unwanted services are not being purchased? That’s like offering CDs and tapes, and charging twice as much for CDs because tape sales are down. The consumer should not be expected to make up for the loss on things that are becoming obsolete. Instead, these companies need to learn how to adapt and embraces technological changes. Find something else that the consumer wants.

Not to mention that there is an unfair oligarchy with telecommunication companies in Canada. There are 3 major companies that monopolize the entire industry, which allows them to artificially raise the prices of services. Since there is no competition, and it’s almost impossible to enter into the market, the consumer is at the mercy of the big three who have no qualms with jumping on each others bandwagons if it means more money overall.

I think it goes without saying that I am personally not ok with this change.

I have the 60 gb plan with 2 computers, I don’t have xbox live, or download movies and I still go over the 60 gb limit every month within 3 weeks.