The Openmedia.ca folks have created several “parking tickets” designed to call attention to the issue of Internet Overcharging among ordinary Canadians.

Appearing under a windshield near you, these clever notices educate consumers about unjustified usage caps and so-called “metered billing” which only exists to drive up provider profits.

Even Bell trucks are not immune, as an enterprising protester found time to share the news with the company that seeks to eliminate flat rate Internet access in the country.

Shaw Communications is selling broadband service promising 15Mbps and delivering only 1Mbps to some of its customers.

Shaw’s ‘Extreme’ speed tier, priced at up to $57 a month, turned out to be a very bad deal for Ron Kitamura.  After discovering Shaw’s Internet speed test, he learned he was paying for 15Mbps service and only getting 1.5Mbps results.

“That is in the range of their ‘Lite’ speed tier,” Kitamura told CTV News.

Shaw’s High-Speed Lite service is priced as low as $25 a month and delivers 1Mbps service for customers on a budget.  If Shaw is unable to deliver broadband service at the speeds advertised, customers are throwing money away buying premium speeds they will never receive.

After a Shaw technician visited Kitamura’s home and replaced some equipment, his speeds improved, but still don’t reach the 15Mbps advertised.  Even worse, at night his speeds often drop to a crawl — as low as 1-2Mbps, because Shaw has oversold its broadband service.

CTV News tried to contact Shaw about Kitamura’s problems and western Canada’s cable giant isn’t talking.  They did not respond to repeated calls and e-mail contacts.

Kitamura has been offered compensation by Shaw — first a free month of service, which he refused, and then $225 in service credits — 50% off his service for the past nine months, but Kitamura still isn’t satisfied.

He, like many other Shaw customers, just wants the broadband speeds the company advertises, but apparently cannot or will not deliver.

Kitamura is done talking to Shaw.  He just filed a complaint with the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services, an industry-funded ombudsman for consumers buying deregulated telecommunications services.

“Apparently, if you don’t complain, nothing gets done,” he said.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CTV British Columbia – Are you getting the internet speed you paid for 2-17-11.flv[/flv]

CTV British Columbia investigates if Shaw’s customers are getting the speeds they were promised.  (2 minutes)

Consumers looking for better deals on AT&T phones have until March 8th to grab them because after that date, AT&T phones will no longer be sold by most third-party online retailers.

Wirefly, which runs its own online storefront in addition to selling phones through Dell and Amazon.com, is a major dealer of AT&T phones and routinely undercuts pricing offered by AT&T’s own website and retail outlets.

Andy Zeinfeld, Wirefly’s CEO announced the change on the company’s website:

Unfortunately, circumstances prevent us from being able to deliver on this promise with regard to AT&T phones. It is therefore with regret that I must inform you that effective March, 2011, we will no longer offer AT&T products and services on Wirefly.com.

[…] As circumstances allow, we will work with AT&T toward the goal of offering their products and services again in the future.

LetsTalk made a similar announcement to their affiliates: “We’re reaching out to let you know of an upcoming change to our carrier offering.  Effective March 8th, LetsTalk as well as other web indirect agents […] will no longer be able to offer AT&T Wireless as a carrier option to our customers.”

The change likely indicates AT&T has radically reduced compensation for third party sellers.  Most earn discounts and commissions on phone sales — part of that savings is passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices, part is pocketed as revenue.

Consumers looking for bargains will pay the price.

Take the HTC Surround. AT&T sells the phone to new customers for $49.99. Wirefly sells the same phone for as low as $24.99, and LetsTalk gives you the phone for free with a new, 2-year contract.  Motorola’s Droid X that Verizon sells for $199 can be had for free from Wirefly or LetsTalk — no sales tax either.

Both AT&T and Verizon have been scaling back discounts and promotions on new phones in an effort to cut costs.

Comcast is increasing the number of speed tiers available to broadband customers in markets where DOCSIS 3 broadband upgrades have been completed.  The new options are part of the company’s effort to rebrand its product line under the Xfinity name.

Broadband Reports notes the new speed choices come with different price points depending on regional competition and service bundling.  The Economy Plus tier is also only offered to customers calling to complain about high broadband pricing, and may not be available everywhere.  The company’s highest speed tier will be available in about half of their markets by the summer.

All plans are subject to the company’s 250GB usage cap.

Economy – 1.5 Mbps downstream, 384 kbps upstream
Economy Plus – 3 Mbps downstream, 768kbps upstream
Performance Starter – 6 Mbps downstream, 1 Mbps upstream
Performance – 15 Mbps downstream, 2 Mbps upstream
Blast – 25 Mbps downstream, 4 Mbps upstream
Extreme – 50 Mbps downstream, 10 Mbps upstream
Extreme 105 – 105 Mbps downstream, 20 Mbps upstream

Mossberg

Walt Mossberg, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, delivered some stinging remarks about how large telecom and media companies deliver broadband services and programming to North Americans.

“We really suck at broadband,” Mossberg complained during opening remarks at Beet.TV’s first executive summit held at the Embassy of Finland in Washington.  “We have terrible, terrible broadband.”

“The typical consumer either has been lured into broadband by a DSL service that in Finland would not count as broadband — 768kbps is not broadband,” Mossberg said.  “If [the government] adopted a regulation not allowing Verizon to call that crap broadband, it would help.”

Mossberg added that cable modem service in the US and Canada is so slow, it is the object of pity and pathos in countries like Japan and Korea, and we’re overcharged for it.

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Mossberg’s comments come as part of a discussion about the online video revolution, which he says is being hampered by copyright controls, outdated advertising models, and broadband providers delivering sub-standard service.  (8 minutes)