Following Shaw's lead, Canadian cable provider Rogers has announced plans to increase speeds and data caps. Hoping to quell increasing criticism of its bandwidth policies, the ISP will make improvements to four of its Internet plans, though only for customers with a DOCSIS 3.0-ready modem.
The cheapest plan, called "Express," will see the smallest change, having its peak download speed boosted from 10Mb/s to 12Mb/s, while its existing 60GB transfer limit remains unchanged.
The "Extreme" tier will have its downstream rate increased from 15Mb/s to 24Mb/s along with having its data cap shifted from 80GB to 100GB. "Extreme Plus" gains a similar improvement, jumping from 25Mb/s to 32Mb/s and 125GB to 150GB.
"Ultimate" subscribers can expect the biggest cap increase with the monthly allowance moving from 175GB to 250GB (the same ceiling residential Comcast users have in the US – even folks with a 105Mb/s line). However, the Ultimate tier won't gain a speed increase as the download rate will remain at 50Mb/s.
Although an additional 20GB or 25GB might not seem like a dramatic increase – and it's not – it is a step in the right direction. That said, we imagine many Rogers customers will be ticked about the DOCSIS 3.0 requirement.
Shaw's adjustments were more drastic, raising bandwidth caps by 100% or more across the board, but its changes weren't entirely catch-free either. Along with improving its existing services, the ISP introduced various new Internet tiers requiring customers to purchase a bundle that includes the company's cable TV service. That defeats the purpose of someone demanding more bandwidth because they've ditched conventional cable TV for web-based video services such as Netflix.