Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

Questions about bandwidth overages and cost
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anon @ 23rd Oct 10:31AM:
Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

I have a friend who just got charged $50 overage on his high speed pro account. I personally have the High speed standard with a max cap of $30 dollars.

after discussing with him on what he should do I just wanted clarification here first

i will lay it out according according to Cogeco's product page.

High Speed Internet Standard(14Mbit Down), data transfer capacity of 60 GB per month, $1.50/additionnal GB, $30 monthly maximum applies.

High Speed Internet Pro(16Mbit Down), data transfer capacity of 125 GB per month, $1.00/additionnal GB, $50 monthly maximum applies.

Now the difference between 14 and 16Mbit is almost negligible. It really comes down to cost.

Standard starts @ 40(12 months) a month and Pro starts at 76 a month.

Cogeco makes it seem like their bandwidth actually costs a lot of money but in reality we know it doesn't to the extent that they charge with overages. Standard offers 60GB vs 125GB. This brings me to my next point.

On the standard package there is a maximum overage charge of $30 whereas the pro has a $50 cap. For those of us who don't really care about paying the overages and are heavy downloaders it only seems logical to buy a standard connection and pay the overages.

In the end.

Standard - 70 a month(no taxes) - unlimited bandwidth (paying max overages)
Pro - 126 a month(no taxes) - unlimited bandwidth

since the download speeds are almost the same why should one even think about considering moving to a Pro account. There is no logical reason behind this.

I have been pushing about 400GB a month on my standard account for almost the last year. I do get warnings but they don't care so long as I am paying my bills. I have never been called or bothered about upgrading my account due to usage.

So with that said, what is the point of purchasing the pro account for a heavy downloader?
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bricktoppp @ 23rd Oct 12:10PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

2 extra Mbits of speed!
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Gruesome @ 23rd Oct 03:14PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

mmmm none

2 extra Mb extra for $56 is insane

I'm actually thinking he pro account may change to say half the extreme
we'll see
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anon @ 23rd Oct 05:36PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

well. that clarifies my point. how does cogeco get off on charging over $50 for 2Mb/bit more of bandwidth.... crooks
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dad_of_3 @ 23rd Oct 06:52PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

said by postits :

well. that clarifies my point. how does cogeco get off on charging over $50 for 2Mb/bit more of bandwidth.... crooks

you've just answered your own questien
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HaTHor @ 24th Oct 01:03PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

i'm wondering if cogeco is going to up speed of high speed pro. right now its a useless tier for the price.
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anon @ 24th Oct 02:44PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

"Harvard calls Canada’s broadband effort “weak” By: Howard Solomon On: 15 Oct 2009 For: Network World Canada Creator

We're 22nd among 30 countries ranked for Internet speeds, prices and deployment, says a new study."

Way to go Cogeco and Bell, way to raise the bar!
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Turtle @ 25th Oct 01:29AM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

UBB makes me absolutely furious. As we enter an age of digital distribution, it is nothing but absolute greed to overcharge customers so much extra for delivering this content.

I'm a firm believer in the "speak with your dollar" principle. Unfortunately, it looks like every ISP will end up with a UBB policy sooner or later.. whether they want it or not. I've thought about switching to Teksavvy, but with the bell decision looming, it looks like UBB across the board is inevitable. "Speaking with your dollar" means going without internet access altogether.

I hate having to think of bandwidth as a precious commodity.

I just purchased Borderlands over Steam and am currently downloading it. Unfortunately, I know this will put me over my not-so-generous 60GB cap for the month. I hate feeling like I should have "rationed" and "saved up" for this "big bandwidth purchase". Furthermore, I hate the guilt trip the Cogeco employees I've spoken with on the phone have put me through when I called to discuss their UBB policy. Belittled and patronized are two words that fit just perfectly.

The worst part is that the ISPs charging these ridiculous fees just don't give a shit.. period. They know they have us all over a barrel. It's too bad the government and consumer advocacy groups aren't interested in ensuring that fair market values are being charged here.
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anon @ 25th Oct 02:39AM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

We have heard from a couple ISPs that have their own CO based equipment that have no plans to implement UBB.

If everyone flocks to them it might change but because of their limited footprint it isn't viable for everyone.
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diskdocx @ 25th Oct 09:53AM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

I realized this (and posted to that effect) months ago. In fact I believe I asked Krispy to explain the rationale behind what, in my opinion, is penalization of the high tier users.

At that point there was a no comment, and not many others seemed to pick up on this point.

This was before the Standard speed was increased to essentially match the Pro speed. (I would predict that over the next year Pro will likely be bumped to 25Meg speed - as it is currently, I can't see why anyone would stay on it.)

For these reasons, I *upgraded* to Standard and got rid of Pro 3 months ago.

With the extra I save every month, I added an unlimited (at least for now) Teksavvy account. I so far haven't paid a penny of overage to Cogeco.

As a further head scratcher, the new Extreme (or Ultimate, or whatever calls it), would be $200/mo for unlimited ($149+$50 overage cap).

Makes Pro look like an absolute bargain :huh:
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bricktoppp @ 25th Oct 02:08PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

Borderlands on steam: $44.99, 6.8 GB download

Cogeco's cut: $10.20
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HaTHor @ 3rd Nov 11:14AM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

said by bricktoppp :

Borderlands on steam: $44.99, 6.8 GB download

Cogeco's cut: $10.20

so true..

I'm surprised no rep or any other cogeco employee on this board have acknowledged this post.
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Gruesome @ 3rd Nov 11:34AM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

Why bother, they've won
Unless we get more competition we're screwed
I believe the Government will eventually take notice of the terrible price and service differences between us and other countries and act but we could be looking at 5 to 10 years out before we see real change
That's 5 to 10 years of Cogeco laughing all the way to the Bank

In the mean time I will continue to support companies that offer better value
What more can we do?
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anon @ 12th Nov 11:39AM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

I don't know how you guys stay with Cogeco.

Between the Caps & the throttling & the overall inconsistent speed I got sick of them.

The most important improvement I've seen leaving Cogeco to go to TekSavvy was ping time. Playing any kind of online game is a serious advantage over the saps on Rogers/Cogeco :) I couldn't believe what a different premium routing could make.

If you do any kind of gaming online, do yourself a favour and leave Cogeco ASAP. They have terrible routing.
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anon @ 12th Nov 12:40PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

said by CocegoisBad :

I don't know how you guys stay with Cogeco.

I don't know how you stay with TSI.

Most of your money goes to BELL CANADA. No need to elaborate on that.

Bell - GAS, you are going to be assimilated as a de facto Bell customer soon.

Your lines performance and repair are based on the whim of Bell. Good luck getting your loop repaired properly.

Your profile is lowered for no reason or lowered or interleaved if you dare put in a trouble ticket. Good luck getting it back up.
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Gruesome @ 12th Nov 02:56PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

All you need do is look at their customer satisfaction ratings.
Personally I've been with Teksavvy for a year and have been very satisfied, it's been a breath of fresh air compared to Cogeco
I was very nervous to leave Cogeco so I ran them side by side for 6 months before I decided to dump Cogeco completely
No regrets to this point
If you can do a side by side compare like I did, there are no contracts with Tek so you can cancel at anytime, all it will cost you is a modem which can be found cheaply at a few comp stores ($40 to $50)
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Phorkster @ 12th Nov 09:37PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

I have no choice. DSL in my area is less than 1mbit and that to me is unacceptable. In fact I would be willing to switch my Inet and my TV over to something worth it.
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anon @ 13th Nov 12:19PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

said by Belisnobettr :

said by CocegoisBad :

I don't know how you guys stay with Cogeco.

The fact is I get a solid 10 MB/Sec and excellent service and speed. I can't say the same for the 1 year I stayed on Cogeco using their service. My service has been rock solid, and most people in Halton region will probably be in the same boat.

Yes Bell gets $ 20 of the $ 30, but the other $ 10 goes to helping create a competitive force that will continue to battle the CRTC until we have true competition.

If you think Cogeco is better than Bell, its a different shade of the same beast. They are just as greedy, and are in collusion with Bell as demonstrated by their lock-step price increases and caps.

I went from 16mbps down to 10mpbs. Which at peak times that 16mpbs was really more like 2mpbs. I get a steady 10mpbs all the time now and an incredible response time.

For over 1.5 years after repeated calls I kept getting the line "sorry sir your service isn't 16mpbs... but we advertise "UP TO" 16mpbs... so we can't help you..."

So Cogeco has its issues too, the only difference is ... Cogeco issues are within their control, and they chose not to fix them for reasons of profit taking. Teksavvy fights tooth and nail for every little scrap of money, and does not behave like a greedy behometh (yet.).
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X_wave @ 13th Nov 03:53PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

10mb on dsl? Last I heard people were barely getting the advertised 6, average around the 3.5mb. Like I mentioned in the other forum if I'm having some problems I don't want to be tossed around from bell back to my home isp until one of them decides whos fault it is and comes out to fix it.
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Fireblade @ 13th Nov 06:44PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

said by X_wave :

10mb on dsl? Last I heard people were barely getting the advertised 6, average around the 3.5mb. Like I mentioned in the other forum if I'm having some problems I don't want to be tossed around from bell back to my home isp until one of them decides whos fault it is and comes out to fix it.

MLPEEPEEPEE, you can easily bond multiple DSL lines.
--
I love fish sticks. I love putting fish sticks in my mouth.
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anon @ 13th Nov 06:54PM:
msg deleted

deleted by a moderator
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anon @ 13th Nov 06:53PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

said by Fireblade :

MLPEEPEEPEE, you can easily bond multiple DSL lines.

and he doesn't tell us he is paying for multiple lines to achieve this....which is even more highly circumspect to get "a solid 10 MB/Sec" isn't it?
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Fireblade @ 13th Nov 07:01PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

said by Belisnobettr :

said by Fireblade :

MLPEEPEEPEE, you can easily bond multiple DSL lines.

and he doesn't tell us he is paying for multiple lines to achieve this....which is even more highly circumspect to get "a solid 10 MB/Sec" isn't it?

Go to Tek Savvy's site, their highest residential offering is 5Mbits /.8Mbits. 5 + 5 = 10, he's obviously bonding lines. Bonding lines also combines your cap to 400GB, or if one of the bonded lines is unlimited, then both are unlimited. Regardless, it's still cheaper.
--
I love fish sticks. I love putting fish sticks in my mouth.
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anon @ 13th Nov 07:22PM:
Re: Questions about bandwidth overages and cost

said by Fireblade :

Go to Tek Savvy's site, their highest residential offering is 5Mbits /.8Mbits. 5 + 5 = 10,

He must have a magical dsl loop with no overhead eh?
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