Consumers cry foul over Rogers move

Shortly after the online movie rental company Netflix said it would begin offering service north of the border, one of Canada’s largest Internet providers sliced the amount of data its subscribers can download each month.

On July 21, two days after Netflix announced it would offer a Canadian version of its wildly popular and industry-disrupting service starting in the fall, Rogers Communications Inc. changed two of its Internet plans: While prices are not dropping, new users of Rogers “lite” and “extreme” Internet service now have a stricter download limit.

Consumer advocates have spoken out against Rogers’ move, saying it was an anti-competitive action designed to cripple the business model of a potential rival in the online video rental world by making users less able and willing to stream movies online, which take up a lot of bandwidth and could lead to “overage” charges for exceeding capped limits. On the “lite” package, users are charged $4 per gigabyte to a maximum of $50 in one month.

Rogers, through its On Demand Online service, already allows Canadians to access TV programs and movies on their computers and mobile devices. The company said their decision is unrelated to the Netflix announcement.

Yesterday a national non-profit group called OpenMedia.ca added its voice to the debate, arguing that Rogers should not be allowed to pick and choose winners in the market place based on its huge footprint in providing Internet services.

See what OpenMedia.ca said here.