Metered Internet? Screw this crap!
Limper - Mon, 01/31/2011 - 12:56
in
I know that many of you my dear guildies are in Canada. How will this effect you if at all? Is is just certain ISP's that are attempting this or is it going nationwide? For those that don't know what I'm talking about they are talking of charging more for your actual useage....for those that game or do any online gaming it could really become costly.
Link:
I hope this is some sort of sick joke, if not I'd be pissed off!
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O Canada..
thank god i don't live there...PS: still wearing shorts.
Yea, the shitty thing is they
Yea, the shitty thing is they are thinking of doing this exact thing here in the US too. You would think gaming companies would be up in arms over this as it will effect the money they make, or don't in this case.
Online Gaming isn't the issue
The big problem is streaming video.
World of Warcraft uses about 5-10 MB per hour of bandwidth. If you were to play 8 hours each day you'd only be using 280 to 560 MB per week (or 1120 MB to 2240 MB per month).
Which means if you played WoW like it were a job you'd only be using about 2 GB of that 25 GB cap per month.
Compare that to Netflix which is estimaed at about a GB an hour for HD video. If you were to watch 8 hours of video a day you'd be at 8 GB per day, 56 GB per week, or 224 GB per month ish.
It's why AT&T and Verizon were freaking out about that Net Neutrality stuff in the US, because they wanted exceptions for mobile phones because people watching Netflix and Hulu on their phones or 3G iPads are crushing their networks with all the bandwidth.
I think a 25 GB plan before you pay hourly is pretty restrictive. I like the 250 GB plans people used to have. That seems reasonable to me. However watching even 2-3 movies per week on Netflix is going to get you near that 25 GB monthly cap.
Don't worry about your gaming though. That's just a drop in the bucket.
Oh, ok...thats not too bad
Oh, ok...thats not too bad then. I was worried for everyone, although patches could become an issue if they are big enough but that will be a different road to cross if/when it arrives.
Nah
Again 25GB is pretty restrictive overall, but you could redownload WoW every month from scratch and play wow 24 hours a day and you probably wouldn't hit the 25 GB mark. I don't think you need to worry about patches or anything. Seriously. WoW itself is pretty reasonable.
Of course if you're downloading 6 new games every month other than Wow that could add up 4-5 gig a piece and put you over that 25 Gig level. However even with patches I doubt any player in the guild would use over 2GB of total bandwidth on WoW per month.
downloading Wow
Actually, if you download Wow up to Cata, I think it's over 25 gigs.
I would never survive! I
I would never survive! I watch netflix and streaming movies alllll the time, plus wow, and I might be playing something else or doing both at the same time, not to mention steam games that have to download.
I think if something like this went through I'd be spending a whooole lot of time at wifi hotspots.
WiFi hotspots may go away
WiFi hotspots may go away with this type of thing. Or they may charge more.
yeah
This will effectively kill wifi hotspots, or at least put seriously restrict the 'free' ones.
Also any towns and cities that put in free open wifi in areas... that'll go too.
Save me, Google!
Free internet for all!
http://www.google.com/tisp/
"A largely sanitary process."
I worry about this kind of
I worry about this kind of crap with US companies, but I hope the competition and networks are varied enough to keep them competitive. My ultimate hope would be that google expands into an ISP and pushes that super network across the country. I'd be willing to pay a premium to help promote that.
Heh.
Most communications companies are consolidating, and we're putting the common carrier in the hands of media companies. The only reason they haven't done this in the US already is they haven't figured out the perfect price point yet. (That, and I think they're counting on a nice congressional anti-Net Neutrality handjob so they can charge us by the website.)
http://www.fiberforcommunitie
http://www.fiberforcommunities.com/
Ugh.
This is what happens when you let the ISPs go unregulated and let them take profits instead of investing in infrastructure. There are countries so chock full of fiber that download rates are limited by the laws of physics, and in ten years or so we're going to be the third world of the internet.
Bingo.
Bingo.
Just to put this in perspective...
...100Mbps connections are commonplace in South Korea, and by the end of next year, the standard will be 1Gbps. In the US, the average is about 5Mbps, and I imagine by the end of next year most internet service Stateside will have usage caps. (Many of you actually have caps already, you just haven't hit them yet, and they're constantly looking for ways to ratchet them down.)
Yup
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-31/tech/broadband.south.korea_1_broadban...
I think the primary factor is line sharing and encouraging competition. It's basically impossible to start a new broadband company in the US because of the initial cost to create a brand new infrastructure. So you end up with only 1 or 2 options for most people. No competition = poor product and poor customer service.
Of course would never happen here. If a US President suggested doing that he'd be attacked as a socialist for wanting to increase competition.
Which simply proves...
...that in the realm of American politics, yelling a word loudly and often enough means you get to completely ignore what it actually means.
Lmao... I get 5 gb per month
Lmao... I get 5 gb per month before I cap and they stick it to me after that and there is no larger plane. This is another reason why I do all my browsing posting and watching vids/uploading pics on my phone, It unlimited.
CRTC
The CRTC, the regulatory body for Canadian telecommunications, just handed the large ISPs a big pile of cash by doing this. The biggest problem the large ISPs face is genuine competition so they got the the government to step in on their side and force everyone to play by their rules. My ISP, a small regional company, just sent out an email to its customers today telling me that my 200gb monthly limit is being changed to 25gb as of March 1. For every gb over the limit it will cost $1.90. I don't blame my ISP, they have no choice.
In Canada the oligarchic cable/telecom giants (Rogers/Shaw/Bell) rule the roost. Bell, incidentally, owns the largest TV network in Canada (CTV). It's what in the third world is called "crony capitalism". Here it's called a normal day of business.
My ISP put out a news release:
Update - CRTC Overruled
It looks like the federal government will overrule the CRTC decision:
“The CRTC should be under no illusion. The prime minister and the minister of industry will reverse this decision unless the CRTC does it itself,” a senior government source, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday evening.