Northwestel limits bandwidth to high-speed subscribers

SARA MINOGUE

Some web users in Iqaluit are downloading more files than their internet service provider would like. To cut down on the excess usage, Northwestel imposed a cap this past Tuesday on the amount of data that customers can download before they are charged extra fees.

Some customers are not impressed with the change.

“High speed is meant essentially to be without limits,” said Kakki Peter of Iqaluit. “It is implied implicitly by the ‘high speed’ they put on it. What good is the speed if you can’t use it?

“I’m not the only one that uses my internet connection. It’s shared to five computers in my house so that makes it real easy for us to go over the prescribed limits even just doing day-day email and news reading.”

In a form letter mailed to high-speed customers last month, Mark Walker, Northwestel’s vice president of customer solutions and services, explains why the company decided to add extra fees for customers that download more than 10,000 megabytes (10 gigabytes) per month.

“We determined that a very small group of customers have been using a considerable amount of the bandwidth or ‘space’ on our high-speed network. Some activities such as excessive file sharing, online gaming, and downloading rich media files, are starting to congest the network and degrade the [high-speed] service for all customers.”

To exceed the new cap, a user would have to download 2,800 average-sized mp3 songs, or 20,000 mid-quality photos, says the information Northwestel provided to its customers.

But some people easily exceed the 10 Gb limit.

One Iqaluit resident, who asked to remain anonymous, calculates that if Northwestel had imposed the new charges three months ago, he would already owe more than $1000.

“Needless to say, I’ll be curtailing my online activity significantly.”

At the same time, this man is somewhat sympathetic to the move.

“I totally understand why they’re doing this. I’m a bandwidth hog and I probably slow other people down on the network,” he said.

He also admits that his downloading activity is not necessarily legitimate.

“About the only legitimate way to go through that much bandwidth in one month is through online gaming,” he said. “The rest of it is pirated material.”

In preparation for the new cap, however, this man downloaded 33 Gb of material in the month of February.

Download caps appear to be the latest trend for high-speed internet service providers.

Rogers Cable, which provides high-speed access to over three quarters of a million households in the South, recently introduced a 60 Gb combined upload and download monthly bandwidth limit that will go into effect March 17. That company claims its new cap will affect only two per cent of its customers.

The Nunavut Broadband Development Corp. will not be a limit-free alternative when its service rolls out across the territory.

Broadband customers will be able to choose from three options. The Qanniq option costs $60 per month and lets you download up to 2 Gb. The Masak option costs $120 per month, with a 5 Gb cap. The Piqsiq option, which includes up to 10 email addresses and internet access for 10 computers, lets you download 20 Gb per month at a cost of $400.

Users who exceed their monthly usage allotment will have their connection speed limited to dial-up levels until the end of the month.

Or, users can purchase extra usage in advance. For this option, each extra Gb will cost Qanniq users $30, Masak users $24, and Piqsiq users $20.

In contrast, Northwestel’s rates per additional Gb cost $20 in Iqaluit.

For Iqaluit residents who download a large amount of data, Northwestel is still the best option at $79.95 per month, subject to a one-time installation fee of $99.