elanya

Unfortunately there is no such thing as unlimited internet anymore almost everywhere.

All ISPs engage in traffic management today, behind the scenes, some will lie to you that they do it. Most people don't see it as they're simply not "moderate to high end" users and those people are being swept up into the media hysteria.

The high end users are on board because it means they might have to pay for their extreme usage, usage that causes the 'little guy' to have a rule imposed on them because the high end guy does a lot more than just browse and check email.

Part of the problem is the way and what the internet is used for today. Long gone are the days of just surfing for information, now are the days of huge pdfs, streaming content and movies so detailed you can't burn it to DVD. That content is a large factor of why things are becoming tight. Managing 1 or 2 people is easy when that happens, managing thousands or tens of thousands results in a different approach being needed. VOIPs and Netflix (just to name a couple) are huge impacts to a network, from a customer service standpoint - VOIP providers blame ISPs for not having enough upload transit, but really the companies setup their packages for what customers wanted/needed - that shift is changing lately. Netflix has some hefty requirements, 1.5mb for standard, 5mb for dvd and 8-12mb for super HD quality movies - those are sustained speeds, not many providers offer sustained speeds at the 5 or 8mb level without high end gear, or fiber optic. Of course this didn't add to the hysteria with it's timing. (sustained speeds are those 'always on or guarunteed speeds, usually not the same as your top speed of the package, one of those hidden numbers)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a low end, nor am I even a moderate user, I'm a high end user (and there's 2 of us in my household) so I'm all for unlimited, but unlimited with all the other restrictions they're allowed to do isn't ideal either; traffic shaping that reduces your speeds, prioritizing traffic (what type of packets you send, yes they can tell), a sustained after a burst model, cutting you off back to dial up speeds or disallowing certain types of traffic all together really sucks.

As for usage based billing, it's what every cellphone company has already done for their internet usage, because their cell networks are overloaded, they were not made for the traffic that's cramming through them now. Most ISPs (especially the smaller ones) are having that exact same problem, browsing and email doesn't take up much, streaming an 800meg movie clogs the pipe. As users we're doing more and more withour connection expecting it to keep up, yet it likely wasn't designed nor advertised to be such a connection; Light Browsing and Email does not Equal torrenting like a monkey and streaming HD movies 8 hrs a day to your Xbox while ganking some buds in Call of Duty.
Simply put the users need to be more aware, more realistic and in the end shell out the money for what they want, a 2mb connection isn't meant for all of the above, that's more in line with a 10, 15 or even 20mb connection.

Comparing higher speeds in smaller countries is nice, but people need to also understand our population density is really, really, REALLY thin compared to countries smaller than some of our provinces (sometimes we have as much as 100km+ between households), so stringing that same internet option is harder, and more expensive to do, most companies just don't bother.

Sorry to rant on your post Lannie, but people have to be informed and not be sheep to the media hysteria that gets caused because Stephen Harper got throttled streaming movies on his 5mb cable connection. People need to understand things realistically.

Think of it like taking a good old K-Car through a logging road. Not ideal, it can do it, barely, at a really slow speed, now get a sporty SUV with 4WD and it'll blip right through np. To have that SUV you're gonna have to pay extra in start up, then extra for gas, insurance and maintenance, plus its shiny nice ;)

I know I can't go back to dialup