Telco selectively increases rates and bandwidth
Ian Stewart/Yukon News
Northwestel has reduced its over-usage internet rates from $10 to $7.50.
Internet in the North just got a little cheaper.
While it’s still more expensive than any other region in the country – and almost anywhere else in the world – Northwestel has made a little concession to its angry customers.
“It was definitely in response to some concerns we had been getting from customers,” said Northwestel spokesperson Sunny Patch. “Customers were asking for some changes to their internet packages, increased monthly usage allowances and a reduction in the charge for additional usage.
“We evaluated the options, and made these changes.”
Over-usage rates have been reduced across the board, and bandwidth caps for those on the high end packages have been increased.
The penalty is now $7.50, down from $10.
The bandwidth caps for DSL have been bumped up to 50 gigabytes from 30, while cable tops out at 90 gigabytes from 75.
Customers on these packages will also see a slight increase in their bills, $4 for DSL and $5 for cable.
The highest end business plans have also had their bandwidth increased, 120 gigabytes from 100, but there are no additional charges for those packages.
Mid-level plans will see no changes.
While the changes to the high-end plans, and the new pricing, took effect at the beginning of the month, many customers may not have noticed.
Northwestel sent out notifications to all customers affected by the new pricing, but they were held up by the postal strike, said Patch.
“They proverbially are in the mail but should be arriving at any point now,” she said.
While tweaking packages is something that is done frequently on the television side of the business, it hasn’t been done as frequently with the Internet, tough it is something they do from time to time, said Patch.
“Internet usage is increasing, and people are using Internet for new and different things all the time, and using it more frequently than we would have seen even five years ago,” she said. “It’s changing all the time.”
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4 Comments
Nice to see at least SOME progress in bringing our internet rates down a bit.
Wow, am I glad that I live here in Vancouver and have Shaw for my ISP. I get their broadband 50 package. I wish things where better up north, as I have family that lives there, and they said the price/service is something to behold (sarcastically speaking)
The headline was kind of misleading, so we have changed it.
The headline is “Internet rates reduced” and then you describe how rates have gone UP $4 and $5 or stayed the same. Since I never had over-use charges, mine is more expensive any way you calculate it, and for most people it will be the same or higher.
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