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:

Lowering the bar on customers by increasing the maximum overlimit fee. It’s another example of Rogers’ Broadband Limbo Dance.

Rogers Communications is quietly notifying its broadband customers it is doubling the overlimit fee for excessive use of its broadband service from $50 to $100, effective Aug. 16, 2012.

The company characterizes the new maximum fee as “protecting you from unexpected high charges,” but of course does nothing of the sort. Rogers’ charges eastern Canada some of the continent’s most expensive prices around for usage-limited broadband. Its Internet Overcharging scheme has relied on all of the classic tricks of the trade to get consumers to pay higher and higher prices for broadband service, while assuring investors the company can rake in additional profits at will just by adjusting your allowance and overlimit fee.

Companies that introduce usage caps and consumption billing are monetizing broadband usage. By adjusting prices upwards and reducing usage allowances, customers can find themselves paying confiscatory overlimit fees. But until recently companies in Canada capped the maximum overlimit penalties. Over the last three years, those maximum fees have increased dramatically, and some companies like Cogeco have removed the maximum limit altogether.

While Rogers’ cost to deliver service continues to decline, these kinds of policy changes can cause broadband bills to soar, especially when customers are in overlimit territory.

Rogers (with thanks to Broadband Reports readers who shared the text):

“To protect you from unexpected high charges, we currently cap the maximum monthly amount you can be charged for additional internet usage at $50 in addition to your Hi-Speed Internet plan’s monthly service fee, modem rental fee (if applicable) and taxes. Effective August 16, 2012 this monthly limit will be increased to $100 in addition to your plan’s monthly service fee, modem rental fee (if applicable) and taxes. If you exceed the monthly usage allowance included in your Hi-Speed Internet plan you will begin to see charges up to the new limit beginning on your first invoice on or after September 16, 2012. All other aspects of your Rogers service(s) will remain the same. Remember, you can track your internet usage online by signing into My Rogers at rogers.com/myinternetusage. For more information or questions please contact us in any of the ways listed on page 2 of this invoice. Thank you.”

Customers can use the occasion of Rogers’ contract changes to potentially switch providers without paying early cancellation fees. This process is more straightforward in Quebec, according to the company’s terms and conditions.

Quebec Residents Only

Unless otherwise specified in the Service Agreement, we may change, at any time, but upon no less than 30 days’ prior written notice to you:

• a) with respect to a  plan or Service not subscribed to for a Commitment Period (as defined below), any charges, features, content, functionality, structure or any other aspects of the plan or Service, as well as any term or provision of the Service Agreement, and
• b) with respect to a plan or Service subscribed to for a Commitment Period, any aspect of the plan or Service, as well as any term or provision of the Service Agreement, other than essential elements of the plan, Service or Service Agreement.

If the change entails an increase in your obligations or a decrease in our obligations and if you do not accept such a change, you may terminate your Services without an ECF (as defined below) by sending us a notice to that effect no later than 30 days after the amendment takes effect.

Rogers’ Customers Elsewhere in Canada

Unless otherwise specified in the Service Agreement, we may change, at any time, any charges, features, content, functionality, structure or any other aspects of the Services, as well as any term or provision of the Service Agreement, upon notice to you. If you do not accept a change to the affected Services, your sole remedy is to terminate the affected Services provided under the Service Agreement, within 30 days of your receipt of our notice of change to the Services (unless we specify a different notice period), by providing us with advance notice of termination pursuant to Section 34. If you do not accept a change to these Terms, your sole remedy is to retain these Terms unchanged for the duration of the Commitment Period (as defined below), upon notice to us within 30 days of your receipt of our notice of change to these Terms.

While Quebec residents have a clear path to avoid Rogers’ ECF, customers elsewhere may be subject to an early cancellation fee because of Section 9 of Rogers’ agreement:

Unless otherwise set out in the Materials, if you agree to subscribe to one of our plans or Services for a committed period of time (the “Commitment Period”), you may be subject to an early cancellation fee (“ECF”) for each Service. Any decrease in your Commitment Period may be subject to a fee. If your Service is terminated prior to the end of the Commitment Period, you will pay us an ECF as specified in the Service Agreement, plus taxes.

Customers outside of Quebec may want to check with Rogers directly to determine if an early cancellation fee will apply when canceling service because of the change in maximum overlimit fees.

Customers leaving Rogers can find better deals for broadband services from independent ISPs like TekSavvy or Start.

Time Warner Cable has a usage meter up for some customers.

Time Warner Cable has reintroduced usage-limited broadband plans in Austin, Tex., three years after shelving an earlier market test that drew protests from local residents and civic leaders.

Time Warner Cable is offering three tiers of what it calls “Internet Essentials,” each offering different speeds of service, all with a 5GB usage allowance for a $5 monthly discount.

“It’s clear that one-size-fits-all pricing is not working for many consumers, particularly in a challenging economy,” regional vice president of operations in Texas Gordon Harp said. “We believe the choice and flexibility of Essentials will enhance value for lighter users, help us retain existing customers in a competitive marketplace and attract new customers to our superior Internet experience.”

But Stop the Cap! disagrees, noting the three variations of Internet Essentials all offer a tiny discount and come with a ridiculously low usage allowance.

With usage overlimit fees of $1/GB, currently limited to a maximum of $25, customers are playing Russian Roulette with their wallets. Just exceeding the allowance by 5GB a month eliminates any prospects of savings, and going beyond that will actually cost customers more than what they would have paid for unlimited Internet.

The company has added a usage tracker for Texas customers qualified to get the plan. It can be found under the My Services section of Time Warner Cable’s website.

Customers in Texas can choose from Grande Communications, AT&T or Verizon if they want to say goodbye to Time Warner’s endless interest in Internet Overcharging.  Image courtesy: Jacobson

Stop the Cap! recommends consumers strongly reject these plans. If customers are looking for a better deal on broadband, it is wiser to call Time Warner and threaten to take your broadband business to the competition. The savings that will result on a retention plan are sure to be better than the Internet Essentials discount, and no one will have to think twice about how they use their broadband account. Customers on an extremely tight budget can also downgrade to a slower speed plan that offers unlimited access, essential in any home with multiple broadband users.

Time Warner Cable does not help their position by significantly distorting the truth about their last experiment trying to limit customer broadband usage. In 2009, the company proposed changing the price for unlimited broadband to an enormous $150 a month. Customers protested in front of the company’s offices in several cities. Despite that, and the intense negative media coverage the company endured, Time Warner still believes its customers are itching to have their broadband usage limited:

Previous Experience with Usage-based Pricing

Time Warner Cable began testing usage-based pricing in 2009. Although many customers were interested in the plan, many others were not and we decided to not proceed with implementation of the plan. Over the past few years, we consulted with our customers and other interested parties to ensure that community needs are being met and in late 2011 we began testing meters which will calculate Internet usage.

We’d be interested to know what customers in the Austin area were consulted about the desire for usage-limited plans. Nobody consulted us either. We can imagine the “other interested parties” are actually Wall Street analysts and fellow industry insiders. We’re confident the overwhelming number of Time Warner Cable customers have no interest in seeing their unlimited use plans changed and company customer service representatives have told us there has been very little interest in the plans to date. For now, the company claims it won’t force people to take usage limited plans, but as we’ve seen in the wireless industry, yesterday’s promises are all too quickly forgotten.

With a usage meter now established, all it takes is an announcement Time Warner is doing away with unlimited broadband (or raising the price of it to the levels the company proposed in 2009), and customers are ripe for a broadband ripoff.

Time Warner Cable says it is “listening” to customers on its TWC Conversations website. We suggest you visit, click the tab marked Essentials Internet Plans, and let Time Warner Cable know you have no interest in these usage-limited plans and are prepared to go to war to keep affordable, unlimited Internet. With your voice, perhaps Time Warner Cable will finally realize that usage caps and consumption billing just don’t work for you or your family.

Google's prototype

Google’s plan to revolutionize eyewear by turning it into a virtual Internet appliance could be tempered considerably by the Internet Overcharging schemes enforced by most of North America’s wireless phone companies that would provide the connectivity.

Google’s Project Glass reportedly will produce the first set of Google glasses, which provide eye-activated online content, before the end of the year.  Without any vision correction, the glasses are anticipated to retail for $250-600, not including your wireless Internet plan.

Chris Green, principal analyst at Davies Murphy Group Europe, told the BBC Google may have bit off more than they can chew, and that other companies have considered similar techwear but abandoned prototypes because technology was insufficient to adequately power the devices.

I see a data cap.

“Monetization opportunities would be enormous, but there are still big issues involved with shrinking the technology and making the computer that receives and processes the data truly portable,” Green said.

The glasses project icons and images within the wearer’s field of vision and allow voice-activated control and communication.

The constant connectivity could provide a major new revenue source for usage-capping wireless providers, especially if the wearer decides to pass the time watching something other than what is directly within the field of view. While short messages and updates would have almost no impact on wireless data allowances, streamed content, especially video, could.

That may make the initial price tag for the glasses the least expensive part of owning them.

A two-year contract for wireless data can run more than $720 with companies like AT&T.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Google eyeglasses can surf internet 4-3-12.flv[/flv]

Google’s prototype eyeglasses can surf the Internet in this Google-produced video envisioning potential uses.  (2 minutes)

Some of Clearwire’s very first, and most loyal customers in the Pacific Northwest are receiving an unwelcome message of thanks for their years of service with the company: a massive rate increase.

The company is nearly doubling rates for customers who were promised special “lifetime” discounts for agreeing to remain with the wireless 4G broadband service, which has been experiencing financial problems recently.

D.B. in Seattle has been a Clearwire customer for years, even before the company upgraded to WiMax speeds.  In 2009, Clearwire sent him an offer he couldn’t refuse: stay with Clear and pay just $22 a month (plus $5 modem rental fee) for life.

“Of course I accepted immediately,” D.B. writes. “Then Clear [sent me a letter recently] telling me my monthly fee was going up to approximately $47 a month with the modem fee.”

D.B. has been calling and e-mailing Clearwire asking what happened to the $22-for-life promotion he has in writing from the company, but “nobody knows anything.”

Clearwire says they have improved their service recently in Seattle, but D.B. isn’t impressed.

“I’m here to tell the world that is not true,” he says. “Plus the times I’ve had this thing freeze up has greatly increased, and usually I have to unplug the modem for five minutes [to get service back].”

Mireille in Seattle managed to get an even lower “lifetime” rate from Clearwire two years ago.

“They offered me a monthly rate of $19.95 for as long as I maintained uninterrupted Clearwire service. That means forever and ever until I cancel.,” she says.  “Last week they sent me an email letting me know that they were raising my rate to $35.95 a month (that includes a $10 a month ‘long time customer discount’) and since I was such a good customer I was being offered that rate for the life of my uninterrupted Clearwire service. Sound familiar?”

Mireille calls it something else: breach of contract.

“I spoke to three different people and no one had anything to say besides that they were sorry but they were not able offer me that rate anymore.”

Customers in the Portland, Ore. area are getting similar e-mails, and The Oregonian took note:

Clearwire Corp., a wireless Internet provider that operates as Clear, is raising prices for 30,000 customers who signed up for the service soon after its 2009 launch.

The Kirkland, Wash.-based company didn’t provide details of the rate hikes, but e-mails to customers show that monthly rates for some home Internet plans will rise from $35 to $45 beginning in October.

Clearwire said the rate hike affects both home and mobile customers who subscribed when the service was first available, at a time when rates were lower or promotional prices were available.

Clearwire still offers a home Internet plan for $35 a month, but it limits download speeds to 1.5 megabits per second — one-eighth the speed of Comcast’s standard plan. Clear’s standard plan, which now costs $45, promises downloads between 3 and 6 megabits per second.