Apparently 2015 will be the year when Canadians will start paying higher bills just to stay connected. As announced back in December, Shaw has been the first to make the move: it has increased the prices of its home internet plans by up to 17% (via TechVibes).
As highlighted by Shaw in a forum entry, starting January 1, 2015 the service provider has adjusted its prices for “existing customers from $4 – $10/month, depending on service, with most customers seeing a $4 – $7 increase/month on their existing plans.” Customers were notified about the price raise in November, the provider says.
The immediate result was outrage among Shaw customers, who gave a one star rating to the company’s post that explained the price hike. Starting this year, the service provider’s entry-level plan secures the user a download speed of 5 Mpbs and a data cap of 60GB for a price of $50.
OpenMedia’s Josh Tabish sees this as a major problem that goes beyond a local price raise: “Make no mistake: if Shaw gets away with this, others like Bell, Rogers, and Telus will soon follow,” he claimed.
Starting January 6, 2015 Shaw launched new Internet plans for new customers: these plans obviously don’t affect existing Internet customers, but they do invite them to upgrade at any time. The new entry-level plan of 5 Mbps is part of the new offer which also includes an 120 Mbps plan (available soon).
If you want to voice your opinion to Shaw, you can do so at this Shaw Forum thread.
