In spring of this year, rural Canadian access to the Inukshuk Wireless system was terminated, forcing many to usage-capped wireless plans from companies like Rogers Communications that cost a lot more.

Kevin, a Stop the Cap! reader dropped us a line this week to remind Canadians they don’t have to pay Bell, Rogers or Telus big dollars for a small wireless usage allowance.

“After a bit of shopping, I signed up for WIND Wireless and it has been a positive experience,” Kevin writes. “Their customers service is leaps and bounds better than the big three and I get 10GB of usage for $35 a month.”

Once Kevin exhausts his usage allowance, he keeps right on browsing because Wind does not charge overlimit fees — they throttle speeds downwards, but not to the punishing dial-up-like speeds of most other providers.

“I’ve streamed music and video after I’ve hit 10GB,” Kevin writes, although he admits YouTube can be a bit problematic with buffering issues at the slower speeds.

Kevin says if he stuck with Rogers he would be paying them around $195 a month for the same usage he pays $35 for with WIND.

“Who cares about the speed of Rogers’ LTE network when you pay that much,” Kevin adds.

WIND Mobile is one of a handful of upstart independent cell phone providers challenging the dominance of incumbent telecommunications companies that have set the standards for high Canadian broadband pricing and low usage caps. Kevin wishes more Canadians would consider switching away from dominant providers to send them a message they have to compete with lower prices and better service.

Share and share alike is a concept unfamiliar to Rogers Communications, at least in the eyes of the independent Internet Service Providers who have wholesale bandwidth agreements with eastern Canada’s largest cable operator that are supposed to guarantee speed parity.

The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) last week announced it filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) accusing Rogers of withholding speed increases from independent ISPs.

In 2006, the CRTC made it clear that cable companies must treat its wholesale customers fairly:

The Commission determines that should a cable carrier introduce a speed upgrade to one of its retail internet service offerings with no corresponding price change, it is to issue at the same time, revised [third-party ISP access] tariff pages that match these retail service speed changes with no corresponding price change.

According to CNOC, Rogers wants independent ISPs to pay higher prices for the faster speeds it is providing its own customers for no additional charge.

That leaves providers like TekSavvy at a competitive disadvantage, according to the provider.

Peter Nowak explains Rogers is attempting to hurry independent ISPs to move to “aggregated points of interconnection,” part of the foundation of the CRTC’s earlier decision on usage-based billing. Independent ISPs were given two years to complete the transition and Rogers wants that change to move at faster pace:

Rogers wants indie ISPs to move onto the aggregated method, something it says the CRTC essentially ordered at the conclusion of the big usage-based billing fiasco a year ago. Here’s what a spokesperson told me:

We are not denying TPIAs access to our new speeds provided they have moved to a single point of connection, called an aggregated point of interconnection (POI). As part of the usage based billing rulings in November of last year, TPIAs were given two years to move from a disaggregated POI to an aggregated POI. The sooner this happens, the sooner we can provide those speeds to these third party ISPs.  Rogers will continue to provide access at existing speeds on the old network architecture until November 15, 2013.

The dispute, as usual, boils down to whether or not Rogers’ move can be considered anti-competitive. The small ISPs argue that it is, since Rogers’ own retail customers are getting the benefit of higher speeds without higher prices, yet the indie companies – and their own subscribers by extension – are being expected to pay more.

If it’s uneconomical for the indies to sell the faster speeds, they won’t, in which case the big network owners like Rogers will hold a distinct advantage since internet access is sold largely on speeds. Since they’ll simply perish if they can’t keep pace, the indie ISPs will ultimately have no choice but to accept the higher prices being pushed on them – and that effectively neutralizes the entire point of their existence, which is to provide a competitive check to the big guys.

CNOC has asked the CRTC to make an expedited ruling on the controversy as soon as possible to mitigate competitive damage.

Rogers Communications customers equipped with DOCSIS 3 modems are getting free speed upgrades, some starting today:

• Ultimate: download speeds will increase from up to 75Mbps to up to 150Mbps (by the end of the year) (250GB limit);
• Extreme Plus: download speeds will increase from up to 32Mbps to up to 45Mbps (150GB limit);
• Extreme: download speeds will increase from up to 28Mbps to up to 35Mbps (120GB limit);
• Express: download speeds will increase from up to 18Mbps to up to 25Mbps (80GB limit).

Customers with DOCSIS 2.0 modems will need to acquire a new DOCSIS 3.0 modem and service plan to take advantage of the new speeds.

Remember, all Rogers Internet plans carry overlimit fees, some steep:

• Ultra Lite – $5.00/GB to a maximum of $100.00
• Lite – $4.00/GB to a maximum of $100.00
• Express – $2.00/GB to a maximum of $100.00
• Extreme – $1.50/GB to a maximum of $100.00
• Extreme Plus – $1.25/GB to a maximum of $100.00
• Ultimate – $0.50/GB to a maximum of $100.00

Our regular Canadian reader Alex Perrier reminds us that “faster speeds mean faster drain of [your] usage allowance.”

Rogers is serving up its Ultimate Internet service, with speeds up to 150/10Mbps, by challenging some of Canada’s biggest athletes to try and beat the company’s broadband speeds.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Rogers Ultimate Bundle Challenge.flv[/flv]

Tennis Pro Milos Raonic: For Milos’ challenge, we set up a tennis court in a Toronto warehouse, with a “play” button target at one end.  We challenged Milos to serve the ball and hit the target to play a song, faster than we could download it using Rogers Ultimate Internet. Let’s not forget Milos is well known for his powerful serve, reaching 250 km/hr. He has also served more aces than any other player so far in 2012. Does Rogers Ultimate Internet have a chance against a champion like Milos?  (1 minute)

Apparently more often than not, judging from Rogers’ video. But one thing Raonic has going for him, as a human being, is no usage cap. As our loyal reader Alex points out, Rogers’ Ultimate Internet only includes a downright piddly 250GB a month, which is quite a little for customers paying just shy of $123 a month for Internet access. Rogers slaps a $0.50/GB overlimit fee on this tier, with a maximum of $100.

That leaves super-premium customers feeling like they can take Rogers’ screaming fast Internet service on a 15-lane highway with a 250kph speed limit for around five kilometers before hitting the toll booth.

Rogers Communications has slightly bumped the monthly usage allowance for its “Lite” Internet plan up by 5GB per month to 20GB. The company also doubled the speed of the entry-level package from 3Mbps to 6Mbps. Upload speed remains at 256kbps.

But the plan still carries a hefty price — $38.49 a month, and there is a stiff $4/GB overlimit fee for those who exceed their allowance. Just south of Lake Ontario, Time Warner Cable’s “special offer” provides cap-free 10/1Mbps broadband for $29.99 a month for a year.

Our regular reader Alex mocks the move as another example of Canadian competition at work for consumers. Rogers has made only small adjustments to their usage caps since last summer, and customers who want the most generous usage allowances (paltry when compared to western Canadian ISPs), have to spend money out of pocket to upgrade to DOCSIS 3 technology.

As of today, here is the current roundup of Internet plans from Rogers

Rogers always adds a lot of fine print. For these offers, here come the disclaimers and special conditions:

• Taxes and a $14.95 one-time activation fee apply. Internet modem purchase or monthly rental required.
• †Speeds may vary with Internet traffic, server or other factors. Also see the Acceptable Use Policy at rogers.com/terms. Modem set-up: the system is configured to maximum modem capabilities within Rogers own network.
• ††In some areas, Rogers manages upstream peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications speed to a maximum of 80 kbps per customer for Rogers Hi-Speed Internet (delivered over cable). This policy is maintained at all times. For information on Rogers Internet traffic management practices and Legal Disclosure click here.
• †††Usage allowances apply on a monthly basis and vary by tier of service. Charges apply for additional use beyond the monthly usage allowance associated with your tier of service. For details, visit rogers.com/keepingpace.
• *Note for Lite customers: If you signed up for Lite before July 21st, 2010, your usage allowance remains at 25 GB, and your additional usage charges remains at $2.50/GB.
• **Note for Extreme customers: If you signed up for Extreme before July 21st, 2010, your download speed remains at 10 Mbps and your usage allowance remains at 95 GB.

If you want to compare Rogers’ allowances to what they sold in July 2011, here is a reminder: