Telus Lowering Monthly Caps

[KTrain]

Not sure if you Telus folks heard about this yet but they're lowering the monthly caps by a lot.

http://telus.com/content/home-phone/...jsp?2012120401

TELUS High Speed Internet download/upload usage change
Effective Feb. 1, 2013, the download/upload usage included with your TELUS High Speed Internet plan will be:

• High Speed Lite – 15 GB/month
• High Speed – 100 GB/month (currently 150GB)
• High Speed Turbo – 150 GB/month (currently 250GB)
• High Speed Turbo 25 – 250 GB/month (currently 500GB)

Optik High Speed Internet download/upload usage change
Effective Feb. 1, 2013, the download/upload usage included with your Optik™ High Speed Internet plan will be:

• Optik Internet High Speed – 150 GB/month (currently 250GB)
• Optik Internet High Speed Turbo – 250 GB/month (currently 500GB)

[Russic]

This could be enough for me to go running back to Shaw. A drop of 100 gigs a month is significant for me when 250 was already pretty questionable. Since Netflix has pretty much become 90% of our household viewing, this is not good news.

[GP_Matt]

They are moving in the opposite direction. As the internet becomes more data intensive they should be increasing bandwidth.

I am sure it is just an effort to force people to keep their TV subscription and avoid Netflix et al.

[Yamer]

Was thinking of switching to Telus, but this information will make me stick with Shaw.

Poor form, Telus. Just lost a potential customer.

[silentsim]

from what i've experienced telus doesn't even meter if you have optik tv- is this going to change? the usage meter is always 0!

[Regorium]

Seeing this just makes me so sad.

I think the worst part is feeling so absolutely helpless to do anything about it.

I know a lot of people are trying to cancel their TV subscriptions and I think it's finally starting to hurt. I truly believe as GP_Matt says that it's a move to make sure you HAVE to have TV.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by silentsim

from what i've experienced telus doesn't even meter if you have optik tv- is this going to change? the usage meter is always 0!

Well I can't imagine that staying the same if they are going through the trouble to take a PR hit by lowering the caps.

I am quite happy with my 450gb on Shaw.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Regorium

Seeing this just makes me so sad.

I think the worst part is feeling so absolutely helpless to do anything about it.

I know a lot of people are trying to cancel their TV subscriptions and I think it's finally starting to hurt. I truly believe as GP_Matt says that it's a move to make sure you HAVE to have TV.

Honesty though, I use Netflix a ton, download my fair share of Steam games, grab the occasional TV show download from alternative sources , and do a ton of software downloads (MS operating systems and evaluation software) Never in the past year have I gone over 250GB in one month.

[ken0042]

Be sure to check your useage online. Before a recent trip I used a lot of bandwidth, and checked what Telus had online. They showed 0 GB on my account.

[REDVAN]

I think it's true that if you have optik they don't count your usage?

[simmonjam1]

Has anyone checked their contract if this affects them? Or is it the people who are currently off contract that will be affected?

[sclitheroe]

Don't confuse metering with reporting. Just because it reports 0 on your usage page does not mean the usage isn't being measured in the background.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by simmonjam1

Has anyone checked their contract if this affects them? Or is it the people who are currently off contract that will be affected?

All Telus plans have these limits and will be impacted. Your contract status has no bearing, except for the ease of switching to another provider if you decide to do so in protest.

[KTrain]

Originally Posted by Rathji

All Telus plans have these limits and will be impacted. Your contract status has no bearing, except for the ease of switching to another provider if you decide to do so in protest.

Unless you signed a contract for a "free" X-box or crappy laptop.

[Rathji]

Are you saying that those contracts somehow involved plans that don't have limits?

I assume you misunderstood what I meant to say, which was that those people without contracts would have an easy time switching and those people with contacts would not.

I guess my wording was really ambiguous.

[KTrain]

No, I was just saying that it'll be a good excuse for those people without contracts to move to someone else. Those who signed contracts for something as silly as a lowend laptop or X-box could have a much tougher time moving their business.

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

I don't get internet providers. They actively provide incentive for people to keep switching than to stay with one.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by KTrain

No, I was just saying that it'll be a good excuse for those people without contracts to move to someone else. Those who signed contracts for something as silly as a lowend laptop or X-box could have a much tougher time moving their business.

ok, so we are saying the same thing then.

Apparently 10pm is too late for me to be up.

[PsYcNeT]

Who the heck can get by with just 100GB a month?

On a related note:

Telus' new ad campaign touting their uhm, "excellent" customer service is hilarious.

I've never seen a call centre so hostile to their customers.

[Jimmy Stang]

I thought that this was an old post from a couple of years ago that was bumped. Sadly, that's not the case.

When Shaw tried this a while back, the backlash was swift and vocal. Their caps were relaxed to a more reasonable level, and I think that they realized that people could see right through their tactics. It was a poor attempt at discouraging Netflix use because it was (and still is) eating into their traditional television business.

In fairness to Shaw, their current caps are pretty decent for what I use them for. But if they weren't, aside from moaning about it, there isn't much I'd be able to do. Independent ISPs are few and far between here in Calgary, and they all(?) lease their services from one of the big guys anyway.