Internet – Page 2

Q&A with Telus on 4G

February 14, 2011September 26, 2012 Doug Groves 4G, Canadian wireless, Dual Cell, HSPA, LTE, Q&A, rollout, Telus, WiMax2 Comments

Last week, Telus announced the arrival of its Dual Cell network, which could bring theoretical speeds of up to 42Mbps to their network, which doubles the HSPA+ technology being used today. The usage of the term 4G elsewhere has been met with some confusion, but with it getting wide use in the US for competing technologies, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing it happen here in Canada as well.

To get some clarification on the use of 4G, and what plans they have for LTE, we fired off some questions to Telus, and present the response below…

Bell admits to overstating customer data usage

February 9, 2011February 10, 2011 Doug Groves Bell, CRTC, UBB, Usage Based Billing1 Comment

In a case of extremely bad timing, The Star’s Moneyville site is reporting that Bell has been overestimating the data usage of some customers and charging them with data overage fees. This has forced Bell to take the data tracker offline for the time being.

Usage based billing debates are wrong… and here’s why

February 3, 2011September 26, 2012 Doug Groves Bell, CRTC, Jean-François Mezei, legal, net neutrality, Primus, Tony Clement, UBB, Usage Based Billing8 Comments

[Ed Note: this article was updated with new information] The Canadian government has once again promised to overturn a CRTC decision if the CRTC doesn’t do so itself. This time around, it’s the the contentious Usage Based Billing ruling that would have crippled 3rd party ISPs from differentiating themselves in the marketplace. It’s rare for the government to step into CRTC affairs, but with the UBB issue growing in public awareness and a deadline looming less than a month away, they’ve pulled out the big guns. After all, it was…

Computing Internet

Toronto Rally to “Stop the Meter”

January 31, 2011February 5, 2011 Pete Chapman Bell, CRTC, MP, Stop The Meter, throttling, UBB6 Comments

Tired of having nothing to be politically passionate about like your Egyptian and Tunisian friends? Tired of worrying about Seasonal Affective Disorder during the height of Seasonal Affective Disorder season? Tired of being pushed around by Big Telco Money and Small Minded Lapdog Bureaucrats at the CRTC? Tired of rhetorical questions starting with the word “Tired” and using caps to make Tired Cliches look like Big Concepts? Of course you are and so am I. Together we can go to the next paragraph.

Unboxing Boxee Box – initial impressions

November 12, 2010November 29, 2010 Doug Groves Asus O!Play Air, Boxee, Boxee Box, D-Link, HTPC, living room media, media streamer, review, unboxing, video, WD TV Live HD5 Comments

After what seemed like forever, Boxee Box by D-Link finally hit retail shelves on Wednesday, and being a big fan of the software, I made sure I was there to get one. I didn’t have the official RGB Filter HD camera on hand, so I fired up my point n shoot with 720p, to give you a look at it, and the much anticipated remote with QWERTY keyboard built into it. I was going to call this one “A look at what’s inside the Boxee Box box, when unboxed”, but…

What the CRTC taketh, the CRTC giveth (to Bell)

November 3, 2010November 12, 2010 Doug Groves Bell, CRTC, net neutrality, Teksavvy, throttling, UBB, Usage Based Billing2 Comments

It was only two months ago that the CRTC made a surprisingly positive ruling in helping innovation in the Canadian internet marketplace, though I was somewhat skeptical. In August they announced that incumbent DSL and cable providers, aka the big guys (Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw, Videotron), had to provide 3rd party ISPs with access to their networks, at a price level of 10% above cost. Part of this reasoning was in the ruling itself… Agreed that a duopoly of telephone and cable retail Internet access services is insufficient, and that…

Netflix dominates Canadian bandwidth usage but that’s okay

October 26, 2010October 28, 2010 Doug Groves ars technica, Netflix, Sandvine, streaming media3 Comments

Online streaming services are clearly starting to take hold in the minds of mainstream consumers, and if bandwidth usage is any indicator, Netflix is leading the charge. Shortly after launching their streaming only service here in Canada, Netflix accounted for 95% of all Canada’s network usage duing the peak time of about 9:30pm, according to broadband analysis firm Sandvine. This is an absolutely staggering number, but not surprising given the amount of pent up demand for just such a solution. Combined with a free month trial, it’s no surprise that…

Google Creative Labs thinks the world is full of interesting things

October 13, 2010October 14, 2010 Danny X Advertising Week, Google Creative Labs, NYC, the world is full of interesting things1 Comment

See the presentation here. Last year at Advertising Week in New York City I was lucky enough to attend a lecture by Andy Berndt, managing director of Google Creative Labs, entitled “87 cool things”. The point of the hour-long session was not to see what Google was doing at the time, but to see how Google sees the world, and its fascination with content creators the world over. This year they’re back with “The World Is Full Of Interesting Things”, basically an updated presentation on the same theme. In it…

Ubisoft crossover fever: Assassins Creed, CSI and Pets to have Facebook components

September 30, 2010October 3, 2010 Doug Groves Assassin's Creed, Brotherhood, crossover, CSI, CSI Crime City, facebook, Hamsterz, iPad, iPhone, Nintendo DS, PC gaming, Petz, PS3, Ubisoft, Wii, Xbox2 Comments

Do you like console gaming, but somehow find yourself wasting too much time on Facebook, making you fell guilty for not using your beatiful next gen console to its fullest potential? Depending on how you look at it, maybe Ubisoft is going to give you a reason to fire up the console more often, or maybe they’re just going to suck you all the way into the black (and blue – so much blue) pit that is Fb. At a press conference in San Francisco, they’ve announced that they’ll be…

Videotron bring 120Mbps internet to Quebec City

September 24, 2010September 25, 2010 Doug Groves cable, high speed, Internet, Quebec City, Videotron2 Comments

Videotron’s new Ultimate Speed 120 Internet is rolling out in Quebec City today, making it the fastest residential internet access in Canada. At $159.95 (or $149.95 with a TV bundle), it’s not cheap, but for that price you’ll be getting 120Mbps download speeds and 20Mbps upload, which rightly sounds impressive. What’s not so impressive is that your monthly download capacity is limited to 170 GB, which is lower than some $30 DSL plans in the country. When you look at the numbers, that boils down to almost a dollar a…

Buzz Words Approaching: “Game Layer”

September 4, 2010September 4, 2010 Pete Chapman DICE 2010, facebook, Game Layer, Seth Priebatsch, TED, TEDxBoston1 Comment

By now, we’re used to letting Facebook and Twitter capture our social lives on the web – building a “social layer” on top of the real world. At TEDxBoston, Seth Priebatsch looks at the next layer in progress: the “game layer,” a pervasive net of behavior-steering game dynamics that will reshape education and commerce. Ten thoughts, questions, comments and micro-rants about what Chief Ninja Priebatsch is presenting here…

Canadian telcos to share high speed networks with 3rd party providers

September 1, 2010August 31, 2010 Doug Groves Bell, CRTC, ISP, net neutrality, ruling, Teksavvy, Telus2 Comments

Back in 2008, the CRTC ruled that internet wholesalers should have fair access to higher speed data networks controlled by incumbents such as Bell and Telus. Partly due to growth in high speed cable internet, the incumbent telcos haves have been resisting providing the high speed access to 3rd party wholesalers, to maintain a competitive edge with their cable counterparts. The original 2008 ruling was challenged and sent to federal cabinet, which sent it back to the CRTC. On Monday, the CRTC reaffirmed its position, which with means independents will…