Canadian ISP Makes Really Bad Decision

Article View: can.general

Article #41788

#41788

From: Unimpeachable Src
Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 01:03

33 lines
2930 bytes

Sympatico Screws Self and Customers

TORONTO Ont. -- Bell Sympatico, the major provider of broadband
internet services to Canadians, has rolled out it's new pricing
structure.  The service, called HSE, or High Speed Edition, will
almost double in price, and customers will now be limited to only 5
gigabytes per month of download, after which they'll pay $10 per
gigabyte.

The changes come on the heels of a major shake-up at Sympatico's
parent company, Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE),which culminated in the
abrupt departure of Jean Monty, the free-spending CEO. BCE posted
huge losses for the quarter.

Customers are indignant.  'What the fuck,' posted one of them to the
HSE internal newsgroup, 'I subscribed to this service to play games
and watch streaming video.  Do these bastards think I'm going to pay
them 300 bucks a month?'

Another sees it as a part of plot by the CRTC (the Canadian FCC) to
restrict entertainment content delivered over the internet.
 
Many are just quietly canceling their service. No one knows how many
have left, and Sympatico is mum on the subject, but it's a trickle
that's turning into a stream as the notices get sent out one by one.

One poster foresees a 'PR debacle' when customers who fail to
read the notices that Sympatico has sent out by e-mail get dinged for
as much as a thousand dollars in excess bandwidth charges at the end
of next month.

ANUS News Services
All rights reserved

Technical Details

Message-ID: <76f9684ac55413942690f206280a8b1b@anonymous.poster>

Path:

arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!195.86.7.162!newsfeed.wirehub.nl!news-hub.siol.net!newsfeed.Austria.EU.net!newsfeed.kpnqwest.at!anon.lcs.mit.edu!nym.alias.net!mail2news-x5!mail2news-x4!mail2news-x3!mail2news-x2!mail2news

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: fc3d0,d359f6b8aa7ca78b,start
X-Google-Attributes: gidfc3d0,public
X-Google-Thread: f504b,d359f6b8aa7ca78b,start
X-Google-Attributes: gidf504b,public
X-Google-Thread: 10e835,d359f6b8aa7ca78b,start
X-Google-Attributes: gid10e835,public
X-Google-Thread: 114af9,d359f6b8aa7ca78b,start
X-Google-Attributes: gid114af9,public
X-Google-Thread: f7b9c,d359f6b8aa7ca78b,start
X-Google-Attributes: gidf7b9c,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-05-16 18:04:11 PST
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!195.86.7.162!newsfeed.wirehub.nl!news-hub.siol.net!newsfeed.Austria.EU.net!newsfeed.kpnqwest.at!anon.lcs.mit.edu!nym.alias.net!mail2news-x5!mail2news-x4!mail2news-x3!mail2news-x2!mail2news
Date: 17 May 2002 01:03:43 -0000
Subject: Canadian ISP Makes Really Bad Decision
Newsgroups: can.general,mtl.general,ont.general,ns.general,chi.general
X-news-source: All the News Under the Sun (ANUS)
Message-ID: <76f9684ac55413942690f206280a8b1b@anonymous.poster>
Sender: Secret Squirrel <squirrel@echelon.alias.net>
Comments: Please report problems with this automated remailing service to
 <squirrel-admin@echelon.alias.net>. The message sender's identity
 is unknown, unlogged, and not replyable.
From: squirrel@echelon.alias.net (Unimpeachable Src)
Mail-To-News-Contact: postmaster@nym.alias.net
Organization: mail2news@nym.alias.net
Lines: 34