Looks like NetFlix is watching what’s going on here up here in Canada, and they don’t like it either. The internet based supplier of movie and television content announced a new “light bandwidth” option for their customers in Canada, helping canucks keep their monthly bandwidth usage to a manageable level. This new option actually cuts bandwidth usage by 2/3rds while having only a mild impact on actual video quality.
With Canadians being the most avid consumers of online video in the world (an average of more than 10 hours/month) the attempt of BCE (Bell Canada Enterprise) to meter all internet usage is not being very well received in the great white north. This is all in addition to BCE trying to charge isp’s a “per usage fee”. The people weren’t too happy about it, and the government had to get involved. Wasn’t it like only a few years ago where Bell was hanging on for survival? Now their trying to gouge all of their customers….not cool.
Though NetFlix is obviously trying to offer a solution for a coming issue, what Canadians really need to do is voice their opinion. They can do so right here: http://openmedia.ca/ , an online petition where they can take a stand against these evil telecoms.
This is certainly an issue for Canadians to keep their eye on, as metered rates will definitely have an impact on your internet bill every month. It seems as though we’re getting gouged at the pumps, the grocery store and now potentially when we surf the internet. At least YouTube is still free…for now.
