Tuesday, March 08, 2011

If Bell Ran Tim Hortons with UBB

If Bell ran Tim Hortons it would be like this: you'd have to buy a Coffee Coupon book each month. Coffee coupon books come in sets of 4, 8 and 12. Each coffee is $2 each, no mater what size coupon book you buy. You go for 8 that's $16. Don't use all 8 in a month, that's too bad, they expire at the end of the month, Tim's keeps the extra cash. Need 10 cups of coffee in a month well extra cups of coffee go for 24x the regular price. That's an extra $48 each. An extra $96 for two cups of coffee - if Bell ran Tim's.

Think that's crazy? Well Bell thinks that's how Tim Hortons works. See
Bell's page on Usage-based Billing.

Quick recap, UBB is where an ISP charges you extra if you use your net connection more that the limit set on your plan. The argument is that heavy users should pay for using the net more.

Bell says "It's an approach employed by service providers of all kinds - electrical utilities, your gas company… even Tim Hortons and Starbucks! If you consume a lot, you pay more than those who don't."

They point out that you can pay $5 for 40 GB, $10 for 80 GB, $15 for 120 GB. That's $0.125 per GB for all thee plans. But if you go over you need to pay $3 a GB, that's 24x what they say a GB is worth.

If we singed up for 80 GB but use 85 GB in a month that $10 for the first 80 GB and $15 for the last 5 GB. Use only 50 of your 80 GB, they keep the extra cash. That's how Tim Horton's works? Really? Have these people ever had a Double Double?

- Peace

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice comparison. Maybe people can see how LOONY this actually is.

Dave King said...

Thanks. I think most people get it, Bell and the CRTC seem to be the ones who don't get what's going on. The only reason Bell et all can get away with this sort of thing is a lack of competition and it's meaningful competition the the CRTC UBB ruling removes.