Neat Trick: Rogers Offers Online Video And Broadband Cap To Punish You For Using It

from the that'll-work-well dept

Tue, Dec 1st 2009 8:34pm — Mike Masnick

Two separate initiatives by cable companies are coming together in conflict. We've seen how many cable companies are trying to set up video portals that will let subscribers to cable TV get access to the same content online, as a weak attempt to reduce churn of consumers dumping cable altogether and concentrating on online options. But, at the same time, they're also looking to implement broadband caps with high overage fees. Those two concepts are shown together with Rogers offering both a video portal and low metered caps with high overage fees. So your incentive is to not use the video portal (which apparently is limited in the first place). How is that going to reduce the churn? It seems like a far better option is to just go with another provider that actually focuses on adding value rather than limiting it. Too bad there's so little competition up in Canada. Ahhh... that explains things, now, doesn't it?

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Filed Under: broadband caps, cable, canada, metered billing, overage fees, tv content
Companies: rogers

17 Comments

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Brendan (profile), 1 Dec 2009 @ 8:20pm

It explains everything
and it blows.

I can't even choose a competent ISP here because the condo has an exclusivity deal with Rogers. Also cable is rolled into the condo fees, making "ditching it" a non-option.

How is this even allowed?
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Harmonious Pandemonium, 1 Dec 2009 @ 9:29pm

Re: It explains everything
Living in an apartment definitely does limit ones options, although it's not like we Canadians have a lot of choices to begin with even if that weren't the limiting factor. I envy people who can use one of the better satellite options, as well as folks from the U.S. who have cool toys like Tivo. I'm excited because I'll be moving soon, which will finally allow me to tear my cable provider a new one. I'm so looking forward to letting them know where to go and how to get there. I want to make sure they know exactly why they are losing me as a customer, the list of reasons for which being longer than my arm. My money will more than likely go to their direct competitor in that market, a business that is already providing me with my internet access, whom unlike the cable company, doesn't use DPI or throttle.
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harbingerofdoom (profile), 1 Dec 2009 @ 9:31pm

keep in mind, that you can be a rogers wireless or landline sub using the service through a carrier that is not affected by their stupid-low caps.
...not likely but possible...

man i feel bad for people who have to deal with caps that low...
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haha, 1 Dec 2009 @ 9:53pm

the MOST not reliable network
BCE inc. tried same thing and after a year of dismal sales and such closed it , ya think the morons at rogers would have learned something.

NOPE
once word gets round it counts to cap its game over .....
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2009 @ 10:28pm

Re: It explains everything
Blame your condo in this instance, as I do in mine. Your only option if you do not want to pay the cable fee is to move.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2009 @ 10:57pm

Rogers is writing themselves out of business
Many people I know have in fact dumped Rogers cable TV, really what is the point in paying $70-100 a month for some TV you only watch an hour maybe a day. Not to mention TV is on it's way out and plenty of content is elsewhere online. If people need a tv fix then a they just watch the free HD signals broadcast locally(uncompressed and at higher-quality than Rogers I might add).

So all Rogers has left is its internet and cell divisions, now they face renewed competition on the cell front from bell and telus and new players entering the market. Due to this Roger's is onto other desperate measures to control the market like firing management and buying enough of cogeco's stock(hedge your bets) so they can get their hand up it's butt juuust far enough.

Anyways, cancel your cable TV, return your HD box... you won't miss those extra channels really. We're going back to the stone-age here in Canada under the rule of these massive duopolist media corporations.
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Robin, 2 Dec 2009 @ 3:30am

No opini
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Diilb, 2 Dec 2009 @ 3:36am

No options
I live just at the edge of dsl coverage in my area and will deal with the sub-optimal speeds before switching to the highly throttled and capped Rogers. Unfortunately the issue of competition does only exist in the broadband space, but the wireless market as well allowing providers to do whatever they want.
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corporate shill, 2 Dec 2009 @ 5:57am

Neutrality Yo
Just like to point out that Rogers has to apply the cap to the video portal. If they did not, it would be an outrageous neutrality violation.
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Trails, 2 Dec 2009 @ 7:07am

Personal Experience
I've switched back and forth between Rogers and Bell (the only two options in the GTA, barring resellers).

Rogers is awful. Their customer service sucks, their technical service sucks, their DNS recycles every three hours, their caps are ridiculous in this day and age, their prices keep going up. Their only redeeming factor is that Bell sucks just as hard.

The only differentiator is that Rogers ping speeds tend to be better than Bell's by about 60-70ms. If a decent service ever opened up in Toronto, I would switch in a heartbeat.
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NotFromToronto, 2 Dec 2009 @ 7:29am

Rogers Customer
I'm a Rogers customer as well, and though I would certainly prefer if they had more competition I have to say that my experience with them is mostly positive. It's also worth noting that the article you linked to doesn't show all of the Rogers package options. They actually have 3 or 4 additional packages with higher limits and lower overages. (Though Rogers doesn't believe in 'unlimited')

Having said that, I'm far more frustrated with the wireless offerings here than Internet. No carriers have unlimited calling options.. and wireless overages are far more significant than Internet ones.
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Peter, 2 Dec 2009 @ 7:37am

We are stuck with a duopoly.

My choices were Rogers or DSL. Bell has a DSL stranglehold. They have throttling ever hour of the day that I am home and awake(even on third party DSL like I was on). Plus DSL connection in my neighborhood limits DSL to 2Mb max. I get 10Mb with Rogers.

But I agree, caps are low and overage costs are high ($2/G). I have a 60G cap and I have easily use 10G in a day. Do the math. Right now I have used 30G and still have 22 days left till a new allotment, so I have to be very careful for the rest of the month.

I also have no cable TV. HDTV over the air is better quality than cable, and most networks are online so I can stream any missed shows (or torrent).
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Chargone (profile), 2 Dec 2009 @ 12:21pm

... sometimes government regulation is a good thing
when it's done properly. Unlike the sort of problems above, in NZ there Is competition to provide internet services. And phone services, for that matter.

the wholesalers [the ones who own the land lines and the cell phone towers and all that good stuff], and I'll admit there are only two of them, have government mandated minimums in what they must provide in all Sorts of things. [side effect of the older one originally being a government department and the deals involved in unbundling the network]. the retailers [actual ISPs, in the case of the internet stuff] are ridiculously numerous and compete just like any other business. works very well.

[it should also be noted that cable tv is a VERY new thing, in practice, here, and is provided as something of a 'bonus' by one of the wholesalers as a side effect of them running fiber optic lines in the first place. it's 90+% just an alternate delivery method for ground station [?] and satellite[which we've had for AGES] tv though. so, no actual 'cable' companies.]

admittedly, there were some interesting hiccups near the beginning when the older wholesaler was also a retailer, but that got split up so it's all good.

so, yeah, we have a functional duopoly in the 'dumb pipes' role, which can't pull anything stupid without getting sat on by the government, and a nice competitive environment over the entire country for actual provision of services.

for all the problems my own country has, it always amuses me when i see instances where government intervention and limitation of corporate freedoms [not actual individual's Rights, mind you] have been of great benefit.

all this aside, sucks for the folks in Canada. And the US, for that matter. If it's a big deal, may i suggest emigration?

The South Pacific's nice this time of year ;-)
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Andy (profile), 2 Dec 2009 @ 3:43pm

Re:
I'm moving into a place in Ottawa and I'm not going with Rogers or Bell. I'm going to try a company called TekSavvy.

Don't know what their service is like yet, but it had several things going for it:

1) It's not Bell
2) It's not Rogers
3) They support net neutrality
4) They have unlimited bandwidth plans
5) No contract - month by month

So I thought I'd give it a try...
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Anonymous Miscreant, 3 Dec 2009 @ 6:47am

Re: It explains everything
I prefer the second option which is to stop paying for cable altogether. Now if I could pay for a no holds barred streaming service that was reasonably priced, gives me access to all the shows I like, isn't glitchy or overloaded with ads, and above all is convenient, well I'd happily pay for that. Oh wait, I already do.
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Blaise Alleyne (profile), 3 Dec 2009 @ 10:15pm

Left Rogers for Teksavvy
We left Rogers for Teksavvy earlier this year, precisely because of the low usage caps and ridiculous overage charges. We were paying an extra $25/month, every month, just for overage charges. Teksavvy only offers half the speed, but more than twice the bandwidth at half the price (and with much lower overage charges). Rogers has since added an 'ultimate' package with a lot more bandwidth, but it's five times as expensive as Teksavvy's DSL (though, it's a lot faster). Teksavvy is $30/month for 200 GB at 5 mbps up / 1 mbps down; Rogers Ultimate is $150/month for 175 GB at 50 mbps up / 2 mbps.

The only problem with Teksavvy is that they're a Bell reseller, and Bell's been trying to throttle its resellers and force bandwidth caps onto them... that will be fun.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2009 @ 12:04pm

There's plenty of competition in Canada. Problem is Bell went to court to get the right to hobble them by throttling their bandwidth because they were getting raped in the subscriber exodus. Not surprising considering that the CRTC is made up entirely of former cable and phone company executives.
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