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Usage caps low enough to set your hair on fire.
Bell customers across Ontario and Quebec are noticing the limbo dance is back in vogue as Bell Canada lowers the bar on usage caps for its Fibe fiber to the neighborhood service and boosts the maximum overlimit fee to $80.
Late last week, Bell’s website published the new, lower usage caps for broadband customers:
- Fibe 10 —
75GB60GB (per month) (Quebec) - Fibe 12 —
50GB40GB - Fibe 16 —
75GB65GB (Ontario)90GB80GB (Quebec) - Fibe 25 —
125GB100GB (Ontario)100GB90GB (Quebec)
Users who exceed the new usage allowances face an overlimit fee of $1/GB — maximum $80 a month (up $20 effective Jan. 1, 2012).
New customers enjoy aggressively discounted introductory offers, but with usage allowances in decline, customers are being conditioned to use less or pay more. It is the classic one-two punch of Internet Overcharging:
- Gradually reduce usage allowances exposing customers to overlimit fees;
- Increase the maximum penalty rate for exceeding the limit.
“I am watching my bill to see if they attempt to impose the new limits on existing customers,” shares Stop the Cap! reader François who lives in Toronto. “You pay Bell more for less and even as a new customer you might first pay less and also get less. The ‘pay more’ comes after the first year.”
Want to use more? You will have to buy Bell’s Usage Insurance in advance:
- $5/month for an extra 40GB
- $10/month for an extra 80GB
- $15/month for an extra 120GB
As a Fibe 12 customer, that’s a $3 monthly price increase, along with 20% less bandwidth per month. Their excuse will probably be the PVR, which they claim is worth $500 but frequently discounted to $350 or less,such as during Black Friday and Boxing Week. There are also programming credits, which make the receiver cost virtually nothing. Let’s assume, then, that the PVR is worth $360, or $10/month over three years. They will give the PVR as a rent-to-own at no extra charge to those who triple play home services with Bell for three years. Take the Internet cost of… Read more »
Alex, you don’t think Bell paid $500 for their PVR do you? Then again, at least you can buy your PVR. Not so much in the United States where it is Rent-to-Never-Own. Time Warner’s DVR service now carries an equipment rental charge AND a service charge that is over $15 a month for both. Few people notice because it’s frequently bundled into the everyday high price double or triple-play service. The game Bell is playing is highly predictable: they will keep lowering the cap and raising the maximum overlimit fee until the maximum is gone for good. Then the sky… Read more »
Ha… I just cancelled with Bell for both my phone & internet! They put me through to their “Loyalty” dept. before they would process my order, and they offered to… lower my fees, and increase my bandwidth cap! And all this just after receiving a letter about increased fees beginning in 2012. Loyalty? I have been a customer since they days when you could only have ONE phone, and you HAD TO RENT IT from Bell! That’s over 35 years! I should have been offered a better deal WITHOUT cancelling my service! When I went to business training, I was… Read more »
The bandwidth cap is all a game. I’d counter-offer you’ll stay if they remove the cap entirely and leave it that way indefinitely. Charging for broadband usage is like charging for a glass of water. There are some costs to bring it to you, but they are nowhere near the amount some people want to charge. Marketing is all about trying to assign a value to something that often isn’t worth that much at all. That’s how repurposed Florida tap water becomes $1 bottles of Dasani you just have to have. Bell rewards new customers with big rebates and special… Read more »
Yup… TekSavvy is who I went with. I’m going to get faster download & upload speeds, and I will also be saving somewhere around $100.00 / month.
I should have done this over a year ago when I first became aware of a lot of the smaller (& better) ISP’s.
man, bell canada must be the worse communication provider i hAVE HAD TO DEAL WITH.
PUT ME AT THE HELM OF THIS S****Y COMPANY FOR AS LITTLE AS ONE YEAR AND WATCH THE PRIDE OF CANADA FLARE IN SHINE
Hey Bell, make me an offer but get rid of your customer relation ceo
Bell last year had a media blitz going around attracting people with their fibre lines are reasonable prices and bandwidth – now, once they have these people locked in contracts, they are going to juice them of as much $$$ as they can! They have been suckered in! NEVER trust the big monopolies – they will trick you to go to them then not let you go easily! A wolf is still a wolf no matter how many sheep skins he tries on!
They hook with the introductory offer and then slam you when it expires. You have to stand your ground and be prepared to dump them if they won’t extend your promo offer for another year. Most year contracts have price protection built-in so you don’t get stuck with the rate hike until they expire. But the dirty secret is, prices for new customers barely increase at all in an effort to lure you in. So take advantage by being willing to switch to the competition. A year after that, you can always switch back. Everything with these companies is negotiable… Read more »
This site rocks!
If you hate capping, you’re not alone!
The internet capping stunt was brought on to the customers to limit their internet freedom and hike their access fees, thus abusing their oligopolistic position.
We can’t let this trend continue.
Seriously, this capping thing needs to go away…