Quebec City residents are enjoying the benefits of an Internet speed race between incumbent cable operator Vidéotron Ltée and telephone company Bell, with both bringing some of Canada’s fastest Internet speeds to the provincial capital.

Vidéotron Ltée announced it will introduce 200Mbps service in the city after completing a network upgrade. The company was undoubtedly responding to increasing competition from Bell, which is installing fiber optic upgrades in the city and selling speeds up to 175Mbps to area consumers and businesses.

The cable company has faced Bell’s Fibe TV service and has lost customers as a result. Now, Vidéotron is trying to regain its footing with upgrades of its own, including the introduction of Illico, which expands on-demand options and provides flexible access to recorded shows on computers, phones, and tablet devices.

Bell’s personal video recorder (PVR) set top box lets customers watch recorded programs on any television in the home, and can also record multiple concurrent shows. Vidéotron hopes Illico will help expand viewing options further for their customers.

This monopole cell tower antenna just showed up one day in the backyard of this Kirkland, PQ resident.

Kirkland, Que. residents are encouraged by news Rogers Communications has begun to relent on installing nearly-15 meter-high monopole cell towers in residential neighborhoods after the company agreed to relocate a similar antenna in Dorval.

Neighbors in both communities are upset Rogers has located new antennas that tower over homes and trees in residential areas, often in the backyards of residents who permit their presence in return for a monthly check.

The Dorval tower was particularly obtrusive to residents, installed in a city right-of-way adjacent to Morris Avenue. Residents there complained about possible health effects of the nearby tower, and called it an eyesore.

Rogers has now agreed to relocate the antenna to the nearby Sarto Desnoyers Community Centre at company expense.

When the new towers suddenly appear, nearby neighbors feel sandbagged. One Kirkland resident told The Gazette the towers are monstrosities. But Rogers is within the law if it keeps the towers below the 15 meter mark, and the company does not require advance zoning or government approval.

Rogers defends the towers, claiming the unprecedented demand for cellular service requires the company to get creative in finding new places to fill in coverage gaps. Unfortunately, with a shrinking number of suitable commercial or industrial locations, the company has been forced to consider residential installations.

Stop the Cap! has been following the Kirkland tower saga for several weeks. The Gazette reports no immediate progress has been made to get Rogers to relocate that specific antenna, but the company’s responsiveness in Dorval gives local officials and residents optimism an agreement can be reached in Kirkland as well.

Rogers' "unconscionable" service contract allows the company to do just about anything.

Did you know that signing a contract with Rogers Communications for your broadband, phone, and cable television service will not protect you from the company’s annual rate increases?

It represents a classic example of an “unconscionable term” in a contract, according to Anthony Daimsis, a contract law professor at the University of Ottawa. Not because Rogers has inserted language that allows the company to raise rates on contract customers at will, but rather because consumers cannot escape the contract without paying a stiff early termination fee, usually approaching $200.

Rogers says its service contracts do not guarantee stable rates, instead providing a discount for bundling its services together. Most Canadians asked by CBC’s Marketwatch thought otherwise, believing it should lock in current rates for the term of the agreement.

The consumer show also chases Bell for charging Canadians $2.80 a month for touch-tone service — a fee that disappeared off most other phone company bills 20 years ago. Bell claims the touch-tone fee was introduced because the company met opposition from rotary phone customers when it tried to bundle the fee into its general price for phone service.

These days, buying a rotary dial phone requires a visit to an antique shop, but should you acquire one just to escape paying the phone company an extra $33 a year, it won’t work. Bell says the fee is now mandatory for all customers, rotary or otherwise — no one can “opt out.”

Bell’s touch tone bill padding rakes in an extra $100 million a year in revenue, all for a service upgrade paid for decades ago.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CBC Busted 04-2012.flv[/flv]

CBC Marketplace presents “Busted,” a special marathon edition exposing consumer ripoffs and deceptive advertising. In this clip, the show chases down Bell’s bill padding touch tone fee and Rogers’ notorious service contracts that lock customers in place -and- subject them to annual rate increases.  (13 minutes)

Shaw is ripping the wires out of its analog FM cable radio service, formerly delivered free of charge to all Shaw subscribers.

Shaw Communications’ plans to abandon its analog cable FM radio service, delivered free of charge to basic Shaw subscribers, has been met with resistance by customers who appreciated the improved reception the service delivered.

Some noted Shaw is eliminating the free service and replacing it with one that requires a digital cable subscription to receive. Shaw:

Shaw previously offered customers access to FM radio stations free of charge with their coax cable connection, as part of their Shaw service. Given that many of our customers no longer use these stations, we are in the process of removing this service across our systems.

Removing FM radio stations allows us to free up additional bandwidth, which means Shaw can deliver faster Internet speeds, increased High-Definition content and more Shaw Exo On Demand programming. This change is part of Shaw’s dedication to providing our customers with leading edge technology through our superior Shaw Exo network.

How can I access my radio stations?

The problem with both of Shaw’s options, according to readers who have contacted Stop the Cap!, is that they come at an added cost.

“Shaw would love it if we streamed those radio stations, which all count against our bandwidth cap, instead of listening to them for free on the cable radio,” says Irene Delasquay from Prince George, B.C. “Galaxie is just a music jukebox service that requires you to buy a digital cable subscription and rent a box to listen, and I don’t want all that extra equipment and expense.”

Some wonder why Shaw is discontinuing the service in the first place. Shirley and Meg Bonney told the Comox Valley Echo:

When we finally we able to speak to a person at Shaw we were told that they “didn’t think that many people were using the FM frequencies”. Had they ever inquired? Had they even tried to find out? Or had they just made a biased assumption – perhaps to try to force people to buy their digital black box in order to access even more of their own, commercial music channels?

We were also told that the CBC frequencies were a “gift” from Shaw.

Many readers who have been in touch with Shaw are being told their best alternative is streaming radio signals over a personal computer, but that presents a problem for some who don’t have a personal computer, have located it in an inconvenient room to listen, or who do not want to waste electricity running a computer just to listen to the radio.

While cable radio is no longer common in many parts of the United States, the vast expanse of Canada combined with an often-insufficient network of low-powered FM repeater transmitters, has made reception of commercial and certain public radio signals difficult, especially inside homes.

Roger and Isabel Thomas feel the loss hurts their ability to stay in touch with informative programming long-abandoned by commercial stations and cable networks:

The FM service provided us with daylong (and night-time) enjoyable, culturally stimulating, commercial free listening. It kept us abreast of national and world-wide events and allowed us to enjoy our selection of favourite music, eclectic though it may have been.

Rogers Communications has following up its “Next is Now” corporate video from 2010 with a sequel: “Next is Now… More Than Ever,” which highlights how Canadians are increasingly relying on mobile communications for news, entertainment, social life, work, and education.

While Rogers wanted the video to promote how the company would be a part of that telecommunications transformation, many of their customers can’t help but reflect on the fact the revolution is well-tempered with Internet Overcharging schemes like usage caps.

Stop the Cap! reader Alex is among them, noting the video says nothing about the company’s restrictive usage limits on home broadband and the even harsher caps on its mobile services.

Rogers, like most telecommunications companies, repeatedly tells investors there is real money to be made attaching meters to monetize megabytes.  Charging for broadband usage is a growth industry, and with the company’s own projections for data growth, they are well-positioned to be in the money for years.

With broadband dependency being as pervasive, if not more so, in Canada as in the United States, the barely regulated services on offer in both countries often come at a steep (and increasing) price — all for something even Rogers hints is becoming a utility — one as important as electricity, gas, and clean water.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Rogers Next is Now More than Ever 5-12.flv[/flv]

Rogers Communications’ “Next is Now… More Than Ever” has broader implications than the company realizes. (3 minutes)