Tech & Biz

Rogers Lowers Download Limit Ahead of Netflix Canada Debut

by Jordan Yerman | July 22, 2010 at 02:47 pm

2680 views | 6 Recommendations | 3 comments

Rogers Lowers Download Limits Just After Netflix Canada Announcement

Within days of Netflix announcing its upcoming migration to Canada, Rogers (Canada's second-largest ISP) announced a change of its own: lowering download limits for its customers.

Netflix On Demand Streaming Service Coming To Canada Fall 2010

If you signed up for the so-called "Extreme" service, after July 21 you will only have 80GB of usage, down from 90GB. If you are a "Lite" subscriber, get ready to be downgraded from 25B to 15GB.

A downloaded Netflix movie comes in at around 1.8GB. The move is basically a cash grab: pull the rug out from existing customers, and then hit them with overage charges once they start taking advantage of legal movie downloads. Overage charges max out at $50 per month, which nearly doubles the bill for a "Lite" customer.

Rogers is hoping you'll either swallow the overage fees or upgrade to their highest-tier plan. Option C would involve simply switching ISPs.

The company, which has 1.6 million internet subscribers — second only to Bell Canada — did not explain the changes and a spokesperson did not have a comment.

As with mobile phone plans, ISP plans in Canada are what American customers would have been seeing circa 2003.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend Sign In or Join to post comments

Amy Judd

at 14:56 on July 22nd, 2010

Rogers sucks so much....

Streaming Guy (not verified)

at 19:24 on July 22nd, 2010

Companies like Netflix and mytvpal.com are coming to Canada. Telus, Rogers, Bell Canada, Cogeco, ZIP.ca, and Blockbuster gird your loins. Streaming is the future and it's ubiquitous!!!Streaming Guy.

AlfVal (not verified)

at 11:26 on September 27th, 2010

Don't worry, Netflix isn't going to overload the grid anytime soon. There isn't anything to stream! It's awful. Truly awful. Typical of Canadian media offerings.