Shaw Internet - Magical New Speeds and Lots-o-bandwidth, fickle geeks appeased

[photon]

http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewto...f=1012&t=43163

120KB/s per player looks like the number, and it increases the more players, so 2 players external say 250KB/s...

250KB/s * 60s * 60m / 1024 = 878MB per hour.

So it can add up if they play a lot.

Also make sure that your son is using an internal IP address to connect to the server (i.e. 192.168.x.x) rather than the same IP his friends are using, otherwise it may be recording his usage against the limit as well (since it's going out to the external interface of the modem and back in, you'd think they'd program it to not count that, but who knows).

[Incogneto]

Originally Posted by InCoGnEtO

Telus planning UBB as well?

http://www.digitalhome.ca/2011/04/sh...ter-this-year/

I'm surprised no one is up in arms with Telus planning this too?

[Draug]

Originally Posted by InCoGnEtO

I'm surprised no one is up in arms with Telus planning this too?

Yeah, but what can you do?

Until the CRTC no longer exists, and open competition is allowed to exist, Canadians are stuck paying too much for TV, Internet, and Cell phones.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Draug

Yeah, but what can you do?

Until the CRTC no longer exists, and open competition is allowed to exist, Canadians are stuck paying too much for TV, Internet, and Cell phones.

So you are blaming this on the CRTC?

If the CRTC didn't exist then the small ISPs would have been forced out long ago and this wouldn't be a topic of discussion, it would have long been the norm.

[Tinordi]

Yes as flawed as the CRTC's mandate is, without it there would definitely be no iota of competition in the retail telecommunications sector.

[secol]

man this sucks, shaw tech came today but now my speeds are actually slower and around 10 DL and 1.6 UL

[secol]

wooo...phoned in and they took my de-registered my modem and re-registered and that did the trick



oddly enough still slow using the shaw speedtest though

[Bob]

^^^

"Faster than 88% of Canada"!?

Who are those 12% and where do they live?

[McG]

i don't know what the consultations were all about. it seems to me that nothing changed.

[La Flames Fan]

Originally Posted by McG

i don't know what the consultations were all about. it seems to me that nothing changed.

It's called PR. They pretend they care, but they really don't.

[Jimmy Stang]

Newsflash (not that you didn't already know): UBB is about "monetizing video traffic" for shareholders and not network congestion.

“As we see a growth in video usage on the Internet, making sure we’re monetizing that for our shareholders through the bandwidth usage charges,” CEO George Cope told listeners in a financial conference call last autumn.

http://stopthecap.com/2011/03/24/bel...-shareholders/


And Professor Micheal Geist pretty much sums it up:

As Geist notes, “no one should be under the illusion that UBB is anything other than a revenue maximization strategy in a market with limited competition, not one premised on fairness or network congestion.”

[Draug]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

So you are blaming this on the CRTC?

If the CRTC didn't exist then the small ISPs would have been forced out long ago and this wouldn't be a topic of discussion, it would have long been the norm.

I think the CRTC results in a lack of competition, which almost hurst the consumer in the long run. I hate the CRTC. I blame almost all my dislikes in the telecomunications industry on them, perhaps rightly or wrongly. I haven't really looked at how ISPs in the US charge.

I have compared the US satellite TV with ours, and I believe that a lack of competition, resulting from the CRTC keeping US providers out of Canada, results in Canadians paying more for an inferior product.

I made the leap and assumed that the same TV (and Internet providers) were gouging us the same way they do when it comes to TV.

Does anyone know if all the ISPs in the US have UBB billing? What the cost of highspeed is there?

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Newsflash (not that you didn't already know): UBB is about "monetizing video traffic" for shareholders and not network congestion.

http://stopthecap.com/2011/03/24/bel...-shareholders/


And Professor Micheal Geist pretty much sums it up:

Not surprising at all.

If this were actually about network congestion, they would have come out with rock solid facts to back up their claim.

But its not, and never has been.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Azure

Not surprising at all.

If this were actually about network congestion, they would have come out with rock solid facts to back up their claim.

But its not, and never has been.

If they came out with facts anyway, I would not trust them. You can make up statistics and lies about your bandwidth and infrastructure when you are private company that controls all the pipelines.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Draug

Does anyone know if all the ISPs in the US have UBB billing? What the cost of highspeed is there?

No they do not all have UBB. The cost of highspeed is cheaper. Comcast even has a 250GB soft cap on their cheapest plan. I don't think there are any overage charges either.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

If they came out with facts anyway, I would not trust them. You can make up statistics and lies about your bandwidth and infrastructure when you are private company that controls all the pipelines.

They could easily hire an outside company to collect statistics on their network and come up with some facts about the supposed congestion.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

No they do not all have UBB. The cost of highspeed is cheaper. Comcast even has a 250GB soft cap on their cheapest plan. I don't think there are any overage charges either.

I think 250gig is a good limit.

It would cover most people.

[Raekwon]

Posted on Twitter, new shaw internet pricing. I will pay that price for unlimited god speed internet. sign me up!


https://spreadsheets.google.com/spre...hl=en_US#gid=0


Existing Plans [1] .
Package Speed Upload Speed Current Data New Data Bundle Price Standalone Price With Personal TV (SPP).
Shaw Lite Speed 1 Mbps 256 Kbps 15 GB 30 GB $27.00 $37.00 $64.90.
Shaw High Speed 7.5 Mbps 512 Kbps 60 GB 125 GB $39.00 $49.00 $74.90.
Shaw Extreme 25 Mbps 2.5 Mbps 100 GB 250 GB $49.00 $59.00 $84.90.
.
New Packages [2] .
Phase 1 (June 7, 2011) .
Package Speed Upload Speed Data With Legacy TV [3] With Personal TV (SPP) [4] .
Unlimited Lite 1 Mbps 256 Kbps Unlimited Add $59.00 $84.90 .
Broadband 50 50 Mbps 3 Mbps 400 GB Add $59.00 $84.90 .
Broadband 100 100 Mbps 5 Mbps 500 GB Add $69.00 $94.90 .
Broadband 100+ 100 Mbps 5 Mbps 750 GB Add $79.00 $104.90 .
Unlimited 100 100 Mbps 5 Mbps Unlimited Add $119 $144.90 .
.
Phase 2 (Rolling Launch Starting August, 2011) [5] .
Package Speed Upload Speed Data With Legacy TV [3] With Personal TV (SPP) [4] .
Unlimited Lite 1 Mbps 256 Kbps Unlimited Add $59.00 $84.90 .
Broadband 50 50 Mbps 5 Mbps 400 GB Add $59.00 $84.90 .
Broadband 100 100 Mbps 10 Mbps 500 GB Add $69.00 $94.90 .
Broadband 100+ 100 Mbps 10 Mbps 750 GB Add $79.00 $104.90 .
Broadband 250 250 Mbps 15 Mbps 1 TB Add $99.00 $124.90 .
Unlimited 250 250 Mbps 15 Mbps Unlimited Add $119.00 $144.90 .
.
Notes: .
1. Shaw plans to make the bandwidth for these new plans available on its network by converting its analog television to digital. The conversion will start in June 2011 and will take approximately 16 months. .
.
2. Packages listed were announced at a #UBB consultation follow-up in Edmonton (May 25, 2011). Similar consultations took place in other cities across Canada. .
.
3. Going over a cap will bump you up to the next plan for the month. Exact details on the total cost at the end of the month were not explained. [1] Existing plans will stick around when the new plans are rolled out. --dangerbell May-25-11 9:42:43 PM
[2] Shaw didn't announce a stand-alone price for the new plans, but didn't rule it out. I wouldn't hold your breath though. --dangerbell May-25-11 9:38:57 PM
[3] Add this price to your current cable cost. --dangerbell May-25-11 8:48:22 PM
[4] Full cost, including TV. --dangerbell May-25-11 8:50:44 PM
[5] As analog to digital conversion takes place these packages will become available. --dangerbell May-25-11 8:57:24 PM

[Jimmy Stang]

Edit: Scooped by Raekwon!

So Shaw has announced their new packages:

http://www.shaw.ca/newpackages/

The gist of it:

- Extreme's "cap" of 100 is now 250. All other tiers have also been increased.
- There are no monetary penalties for going over, although I'd guess that they'd eventually get you into a higher package if it is a consistent thing.
- There are some premium options for those who want more speed and/or more usage, including an unlimited plan.

My initial impressions are:

- Still UBB in a sense, but the loss of the overage fees and the increase on the caps is more in line with more internet users and not just a cash grab.
- What happens when the average user is exceeding the limits of the average plans? Do the plans increase accordingly? Shaw has been pretty good at increasing speeds as technology permits, so hopefully they do the same with the caps.
- What are Rogers', Bell's, and Telus' moves? As much as we moaned about Shaw's old scheme, Rogers users were in a far worse place. Now the inequality of providers is very apparent. Problem is (for Rogers customers), is that Shaw doesn't operate in much of Rogers' territory.


All in all, I'm pleasantly surprised by Shaw's move. They have essentially gone back to the old way of notifying bandwidth hogs and working with them, instead of wanting to slap an overage on X number of users in order to generate revenue. The have also made a competitive move against Rogers, Bell, and Telus by providing more value, which should help the market as a whole.

Thoughts?

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by Raekwon

I will pay that price for unlimited god speed internet. sign me up!

Me too. The upper tier plans are even better than what they offer now. This is very realistic and will give most people what they want, even a bandwidth hog like myself. If I can get 100mbps for $10 more than I'm paying for 50mbps I'm going to jump on it. Might even give 250mpbs a try.