Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

We've talked a great deal about the unfolding data usage caps from wired ISPs over the past year here on Digital Home Thoughts, so I thought I might be interesting to share my data usage as measured by my ISP here in Western Canada, Shaw Communications. Here's my usage from December 2010 through until July 2011:

I'd guess that an average person would consume far less bandwidth, but also be the reverse of my pattern; they'd have more download usage and less upload usage. Why do I use up so much upstream bandwidth? No, it's not torrents - I've been slowly but surely adding data via Crashplan for my off-site backup (I'm up to 620 GB or so now) and last week I uploaded my 100 GB music collection to Amazon's Cloud Drive service. Now that I've uploaded pretty much all my data to Crashplan, and all my music is in the cloud, I should be using less upstream data.

What does your data usage look like? Are you bumping up against your cap (if you have one), or are you comfortably within it?

"Today we are excited to share our new direction on Internet pricing and packaging with you, our customers. With your help, we've created a model that we hope you'll agree is fair, flexible and offers a variety of options for customers today and into the future. We'd like to thank the hundreds of customers who took time to come out to the 34 sessions and those who shared their ideas online. Many of those who participated are the technology innovators who told us they wanted an Internet experience that worked not only today, but for the needs of tomorrow. We also heard that our customers wanted transparency, more choice of internet speed and data options, increased flexibility to meet their varied needs, and above all, fairness."

There's been a lot of noise here in Canada bout UBB (Usage-Based Billing), and as one of the big ISPs here in Canada, Shaw is right in the thick of this fight. Unlike, it seems, the rest of the major ISPs (Bell, Rogers, etc.) Shaw is actively seeking out feedback from their customers and have come up with some interesting results. Read more...

This is one of more easier to understand videos when it comes to the issue of Usage Based Billing - UBB - and what it really means. I'm putting this on every site in the network because if you're in Canada, you need to understand what's happening (everyone else in the world might find it interesting). Now that one of the ISPs here in Canada has admitted that the pricing of their plans is not linked to actual use, the logic behind UBB start to become even more baffling. We know the motivation is money, but as a "small c capitalist" I believe there's room for plenty of profit while still being fair to your customers. The model of usage-based billing we use in society for buying clothes and food should be applied in the same way for a data connection. Read more...

"As confirmed by Industry Minister Tony Clement on Twitter, the government plans to overturn the recent CRTC decision that effectively imposed usage-based internet billing if the agency doesn't back down and "go back to the drawing board." Citing a senior government official, The Toronto Star further reports that the reversal could come as early as next week."

Since the Canadian government's announcement about its opposal to the recent UBB implementation, the CRTC has issued a statement saying that they have delayed the enforcement date by 60 days while it reviews the decision. Will the brouhaha quiet down in 60 days? Will the CRTC reverse its decision? Will any changes by made to the current structure for UBB? It is hard to say, since by the wording of the CRTC statement, they seem adamant that their ruling is the correct one. Throughout the past few weeks that the Canadian UBB issue has been covered in the media I have seen people and arguments for both sides, each with some valid points. From all of that, I have taken away two main thoughts.

First, Canadians seem quite passionate about their access to the Internet. The threat of potential high costs for Internet tickled a nerve among people and if you were to believe the media,, there were thousands, if not millions, willing to stand up and protest the changes. We do live in a digital age, and being cut off, or the threat of increased rates can significantly affect how we do business or even handle our personal lives. I also think that the recent events in Egypt where they went through an Internet blackout, may have scared more Canadians into action.

Second, the management of DSL wholesale and Bell is a complex issue. Bell Canada is a privately owned company, but has benefitted from having had a monopoly and being a Crown corporation. Does the government have the right to dictate what private business does? Does its subidies to companies like Bell mean that Bell is controlled by politicians, not business-people? How much help should the government give small business and ensure competition?

With the increasing importance of the Internet in our daily lives, I believe that this issue will continue to plague Canadians (including me!) for years to come. Oddly enough, it reminds me of the days back when dial-up was much more common, and there were dozens if not hundreds of ISPs, each in firece competition with each other. How the world has changed.