(not sure if this is the right place to post this)
Effective January 1 2015 Shaw Communications is changing its Internet service plans. The situation isn't entirely clear but the news has stirred up tremendous negative reaction on social media (e.g. on Reddit, Twitter).
Here's on of the Reddit threads:
http://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/2pgb3w/shaw_starting_january_6th_all_new_internet_is_40/
We can't be sure that data you see there is entirely correct. What we do know is that existing plans (for instance I am on Shaw's Internet High Speed 25 plan) will disappear (although they remain grandfathered for existing customers), to be replaced by other plans. The typical public reaction to this has been "reduced performance, increased price". I can't at this stage verify that. A new customer would not see my HS 25 plan. They would have the choice of a 15 or 30 Mbps plan (the nearest to mine).
Shaw itself has posted this:
http://www.shaw.ca/Customer-Bulletins/January-2015-Internet-Rate-Adjustment/
in which the company claims "Shaw is increasing regular monthly rates on all Internet plans to support continued investment in building and supporting the Internet experience you need now and in the future."
A really interesting area to follow developments is Shaw's own Community Forum area:
https://community.shaw.ca/docs/DOC-3963
I say "interesting" because to the right in this area you will see links to some of the nastier reactions to the rate increases. I'm thinking that Shaw might shut this down once they see what is happening here, but then that in itself may provoke even nastier reaction.
So, has anyone yet seen a notification of a price increase? I haven't but then I haven't read all the fine print on the last bill from Shaw. I do know I am paying too much for the service I get. I pay $165 for combined HS25 and television. I have no pay TV but I do have all the HD content (what's the point of having an HD TV and not getting the HD content for it. The company did eventually send me an MPEG-4 PVR at no charge after two years of complaining that I couldn't watch certain "4" encoded channels on the PVR the company had sold me previously. However, the real reason they gave in was the audio dropout problem on the PVR. However even the newest models seem to suffer this same problem. But that's another story.