60GB Just Isn’t Enough
Earlier this month I found out that, beginning on March 17, 2005, Rogers (my local cable internet provider) had placed a transfer cap on all their high-speed internet packages. While they state that 60GB transfer is quite a bit and that “61,440 Megabytes [60GB] is what the average customer would use in an entire year ,” I don’t feel that is nearly enough for those Power Users out there, and I wrote them a letter expressing my concerns:
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing in regards to the 60GB transfer limit that you have placed on all service plans as of March 17, 2005.
I feel that a limit of 60GB of transfer (upload and download) may not be enough for all users, and I’m sure that those that who you consider 2% of your customer base, feel the same way.
I chose Rogers for the high connection (download) speeds offered, the bundles (High Speed and Digital TV, etc) that you offer, and the fact that I didn’t need to have a telephone line in my house to use your services High-Speed Services (as I would with Aliant High-Speed), as I use a cellphone for all my calls, and didn’t want to have to get an unnecessary land-line.
I am a DJ and I do a lot of streaming from my pc (as a client), to a colocated server which then sends the music out to any listeners. I can easily send 10gb a month out to the distribution server from my PC. Other things that weigh heavily on my transfers are downloading several DJ’s sets a day (usually 100mb+ mp3 sets, legal downloads of course), which can add up, not to mention the pay per download mp3s that you can now purchase rather than buying vinyl. All this transfer adds up for a few thousand megabytes, and this is not even including other services like streaming internet radio that’s on at my house nearly 24/7 (1350mb for 24 hours of listening @ 128kbps).
The above is just me getting my fill of music for the month, it doesn’t include my online gaming (map downloads/patches/etc) or anything else that my two roommates might be doing.
I would be willing to pay more for extra monthly bandwidth if I got to keep the same speed and level of service that Rogers provides, but unfortunately, the service plans listen on your website do not over that option.
I’ve called Aliant’s High Speed Services, and they are not capping their High-Speed service customers at all. Granted, I’m going to have to pay a monthly service charge for a land-line I won’t use, and I will have to deal with slower transfer rates (slower download, but faster upload), but the fact they they will not cap my transfers has ultimately decided that I will not continue my service with Rogers.
I appreciate your time and consideration for reading this email.
Thanks,
Michael Walker
Rogers replied with a very generic email:
Dear Michael Walker,
Thank you for taking the time to write to Rogers Cable Inc. We appreciate this opportunity to respond to your inquiry.
We are sorry that you feel that way about our bandwidth limit. In return we would like to send you the information on why a bandwidth limit is important to us and our customers:
In an effort to keep pace with the evolving Internet needs of our Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet customers and to continue providing you with a fast and efficient service, we have implemented a combined upload and download bandwidth limit of 61,440 Megabytes (60 gigabytes) per month. This is a very generous limit which is approximately equal to the consumption of a typical customer in an entire year. This limit was announced on February 15 2005 and will take effect starting March 17, 2005.
New Internet file sharing applications have had a dramatic impact on the way people use the available network capacity. It is Rogers’ responsibility to ensure that we can deliver the level of service our customers are expecting. This limit is one of the measures we are taking to address this issue.
To enable you to be informed about how much data you are using each month we have also introduced a Usage Measurement tool. The Usage Measurement tool is an online mechanism that will allow you to view the amount of cumulative data that you have transferred in a given month. You can view your usage at any time. The statistics will be updated on a daily basis to offer you the maximum level of visibility for your usage. Additionally, the tool will allow you to view your usage history for past weeks and months. The tool is available to all Rogers Yahoo customers since February 15, 2005. You can find the usage measurement tool in the customer service area of Rogers.com.
Rogers is one of the last major North American Internet suppliers to implement such a limit. Our limit of 60GB is among the most generous. The intent of this policy is not to punish customers for using too much bandwidth, or to discourage the typical customer from using as much Internet as they want. Instead, we are concentrating on providing a clear and generous limit, along with the tools customers will need to manage their own usage
If you have additional questions about this new program please visit www.rogers.com/ums-faq
If you have any further questions or comments regarding our service, please contact us by replying to this e-mail.
For future reference with respect to this e-mail, please quote reference number XXXXXXX.
Regards,
Serge A.
Rogers Online Customer Care
http://www.rogers.com
Now, it’s not like I expected to get a personal email back from the president of the company, but I would much rather my concerns be addressed by someone and reply to my questions without copying and pasting generic shit from their help system. Bah.
I don’t mind broadband companies limiting their user’s transfers, I completely understand it actually, especially with cable companies since cable uses shared bandwidth. What I do mind is the fact that with these rules in place, if you go over your 60GB monthly allotment once they cut you off. You can call them back to have your account reinstated as long as you promise not to go over again. If you go over a second time, it’s cut off for a month. A third time? No internet for a year. Pretty lame.
I’m just venting, but I think Roger’s is being way too tight about this.
2 Comments
I also use Rogers and just found out about the limit.
I have been on the file sharing scene for less than a week and only have 5 movies, but I have however discovered that I could get excellent mp3s by recording internet radio stations. I sometimes have 4 stations recording simultaneously. I watch a lot of internet tv, and sometimes record some pieces to show other people. judging by the size of those recordings in a few days I already have a few gigs of tv recording. I heard rumours about the bandwidth cap years ago, but thought they were just rumours. I better check how much i’ve already consumed. Also, I heard it’s possible to get a T1 line for around $200 around here, and it offers 1.5Mbps and unlimited bandwidth and high uploading speed instead of 200something Mbps that cable gives me. If 4 people lived in a house and were willing to pay $50 bucks each, (comparable to what people already pay, considering our household has 4 cellphones, digital rogers cable with extra channels and satellite tv and a telephone line), then each person would have a pretty good access to the internetwork.
I agree with the limit is pretty lame. But with the connection problems I have it would take me years to come close to the monthly limit.I enjoy playing poker online but am continually being timed out.So not only am I competing against other players,I also compete with rogers. I think rogers should only be relied upon for email.