TORONTO – Rogers has lowered the GB limits on some of its Internet plans, a move that has sparked speculation about whether it may be linked to the pending arrival of U.S. on-line video service Netflix, or the rumours about Hulu coming to Canada this year.
The new lower limits, which came in to effect last week, apply to new customers only. Customers who signed up for the company’s ‘Extreme’ package after July 21 are allowed 80 gigabytes of monthly usage, down from 90 for those who were already customers. Those going for the ‘Lite’ service will now get 15 GB, versus 25 GB before. Rogers also simultaneously bumped up the speed of the ‘Extreme’ plan from 10 Mbps to 15. It’s ‘Lite’ plan’s speed is unchanged at 3 Mbps.
Rogers denied that the changes are related to Netflix, saying that it’s just about offering its customers more choice.
“We make adjustments to reflect the changing nature of customers’ on-line behaviour”, wrote Rogers spokesperson Carly Suppa, in an email response to Cartt.ca. “In the last five years, we have launched two new tiers, improved our speeds multiple times on each tier, and provided usage allowances to more accurately reflect the needs of our customers – all of this to ensure we are giving those with higher demands the option to choose more speed or bandwidth while ensuring those whose needs are not as great to have lower priced tiers.”
Rogers declined to comment on whether it would introduce an unlimited plan, saying only that it has “not announced other Internet plans at this time”. The company did say that it will continue to work on building out its own on-line video service, Rogers On Demand Online.
Netflix has become popular Stateside by offering unlimited movies and television shows for a monthly subscription fee of $8.99 U.S. Rogers did not confirm whether it is considering revising its television pricing or packaging.
