January 26, 2007
VoIP Costs To Increase?
[warning: rant ahead] I'm not sure about cable providers in the U.S., but Rogers Cable in the province of Ontario, Canada, is increasing Internet access costs. Now, up here, cable service is a virtual monopoly by region, so my only choices are cable or high-speed dialup. Both have their pros and cons. I'm not happy with my cable Internet service, and now I have to pay more. The only other choice I have is my wireless data connection through my Palm Treo (through Telus Mobility), which costs $100/m and is limited to 250Mb per month, which I use up in two days of normal surfing.
On a side note, Rogers is also pulling MSNBC, the only TV station I watch during the day, to keep up on the tech industry. They're moving it off the basic cable package to a Personal TV package. So now, if I want to keep up on the tech market, product announcements, stock prices etc., I have to pay an extra $30 or so month to get a 6-pack of TV channels I don't give a damn about. And of course, Rogers is always so customer conscious that they're only taking complaints by snail mail. What decade is this?
So cable companies continue to wield infrastructure control and charge us whenever they want. (Who said the net neutrality battle was won?) I think we're going to pay increasingly more for Internet access no matter what the reason is called. And no matter which VoIP provider you pick, you'll still pay more to the cable companies. Unless of course you choose an alternate provider type such as high-speed dialup, satellite, or powerline. On the other hand, with IPTV clients such as Joost, maybe we won't need our cable TV packages for much longer.
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