Rogers meets changing customer needs with new Hi-Speed Internet tiers

By: RogersMarina

July 20th, 2011 a 11:15am

With the rapid rise of online video, social media and online gaming, the way Canadians use the Internet is changing dramatically. We’re always reviewing our plans to ensure they meet your changing needs so starting later this month, our Hi-Speed Internet tiers are being upgraded with faster download speeds and higher data allowances for customers on Rogers DOCSIS 3.0, our best and fastest wireline network.

The new plans apply to Rogers Hi-Speed Internet Express, Extreme, Extreme Plus and Ultimate tiers. In late July we will begin automatically upgrading customers on Rogers DOCSIS 3.0 to our enhanced plans at no additional cost.

Customers on a DOCSIS 2.0 modem or home networking modem can upgrade to these new tiers by visiting a Rogers retail location and upgrading to a DOCSIS 3.0 home networking modem. The prices on our new DOCSIS 3.0 tiers match our existing price plans and a DOCSIS 3.0 home networking modem only costs an extra $1.50 to $3 per month over the cost of a DOCSIS 2.0 modem.

As one example, customers on our Extreme plan and using a DOCSIS 3.0 modem will see their download speeds¹ increase from up to 15 Mbps to up to 24 Mbps and their data allowance increase from 80 GB to 100 GB at no additional cost. The updated Extreme plan allows customers to stream approximately 90 hours of content on Rogers On Demand Online or 50 HD movies per month.

Check out the below chart for a complete breakdown of the changes:

Unsure if you have a DOCSIS 3.0 modem? It is the Wireless N Gateway modem and you can see what it looks like here.

Also starting later this month, you’ll be able to add a data assurance option if you’re currently using the Express and Extreme tiers. For an extra $20 per month, you’ll receive an extra 80 GB of data on top of your existing allowances. If you don’t need quite as much data, you can also get an additional 20 GB for an extra $5 per month.

Marina Guy is a regular contributor to RedBoard

¹Speeds may vary with internet traffic, server, gateway/router, computer (quality, location in the home, software and applications installed), home wiring, home network or other factors. Also see the Acceptable Use Policy at rogers.com/terms. Modem set-up: the system is configured to maximum modem capabilities within Rogers own network.
²Usage allowances apply on a monthly basis and vary by tier of service. Charges may apply for additional use beyond the monthly usage allowance associated with your tier of service. For details, visit rogers.com/keepingpace.
³Up to 75 Mbps in Atlantic region

Rating: 1.7/5 (114 votes cast)

Categories:

Customer experience, Internet, trends

Tags:

DOCSIS, DOCSIS 2.0, DOCSIS 3.0, Express, Extreme, Extreme Plus, Hi-Speed Internet, high-speed Internet, Internet, rogers on demand, Ultimate, Wireless N Gateway

124 Comments

anon says: July 21st, 2011 a 8:44am

You neglected to meniton that Rogers has re-organized its packaging and prices to push the average user to a higher package and cost…they didn’t just bump up data caps.

Nice press release though.
Martin says: July 21st, 2011 a 8:51am

Well I for one thank you for the changes. Just what I needed actually. I am always just going over my cap. Maybe 10GB or so each month so this helps me. Speed boost is just a bonus ;)

I agree that the $20/month assurance is way over priced. I would never purchase it. At $20 for 80GB that is DOUBLE what Bell charges for the same thing.

Below is a little easier on the wallet. Or a straight price per gig either way you guys are moving in the right direction.

$5/month for 40 GB
$10/month for 80 GB
$15/month for 120 GB
Roadblock says: July 21st, 2011 a 9:02am

Hi

I am on Extreme now. That means my modem is already DOCSIS 3.0 correct ? The first thing i did was disabling the router functionality of the feature. it can be done by Rogers Tech Support. I recommend everyone doing that and use your own gear for router.
- RogersElise says: July 22nd, 2011 a 4:48pm
  
  Hi. You can check if you have the Docsis 3.0 N gateway by checking on it. The model should read: SMC D3GN-RRR
Sam says: July 21st, 2011 a 9:37am

Guys, for all of you worried about your “network setup”, the wireless N router can be set up as modem only, so you can keep your setups, networks etc the same, and just user the wireless N router in modem mode.
- Patrick says: July 21st, 2011 a 12:12pm
  
  Oh that calms me down. Now I don’t have to be forced over to a modem/router combo but rather just pay twice as much a month to be able to do exactly what i’m doing now
- Matt says: July 21st, 2011 a 12:41pm
  
  But you’re paying for something you don’t need!
Paul says: July 21st, 2011 a 9:40am

Can I purchase my own DOCSIS 3.0 modem, such as a Thompson DCM475, and install it?
Jason says: July 21st, 2011 a 10:12am

I live in a household with 5 people including myself and every single day is a PAIN, pain from tracking bandwidth, telling my kids to limit their YouTube viewing and music downloads, every single month we’re hitting the cap and if we hit it early in the month I’m forced to pull the cable so we don’t have to pay the overage fee. The caps are just too small even for a “regular” 4 person household.

Marina, if you can, please do everything and anything in your power to get those caps to be raised! The express cap (which I have) didn’t even get a raise! Why?!
Hagop B. says: July 21st, 2011 a 10:36am

Is this the same Rogers that lowered bandwidth caps as soon as Netflix announced they were entering the Canadian market? Also Extreme’s cap was 95GB before Rogers dropped it to 80GB, so realistically they are only increasing the cap by 5GB.

To be honest, after being with Rogers for over 10 years, I left Rogers for the competitor because Rogers’ caps were far too limited, 60GB vs. 300GB. Same speeds with more cap at a cheaper price, how could I go wrong. Sure I could have gotten on a higher tier with Rogers, but for many customers like me, cap is more important than speed.
- JerB says: July 21st, 2011 a 1:29pm
  
  I’m in the same boat. Rogers are either out of touch with what people want or they’re trying to force feed people. I was a long time Rogers customer and very recently gave up and went to what is most likely the same competitor. So nice being able to stream movies and use the internet without having to constantly monitor and worry about Roger’s ridiculous caps.
- RogersElise says: July 25th, 2011 a 6:05pm
  
  Hi Hagop. Thanks for your feedback. We’ve heard all of you asking about the Extreme, at at this point in time, we haven’t decided to change the data allowance of the Extreme plan. But, we are always reviewing our plans to offer greater value to our customers and so the feedback that has been given here is really valuable.
  
  On a side note, I wanted to clarify that the announcement by Netflix and the changes in our plans last year were unrelated. Moreover, the changes to our plans were for new customers only and plans for existing custoemrs were not changed.
  - Hagop B. says: August 4th, 2011 a 5:37pm
    
    Hey Elise, thanks for replying. I know your PR, but maybe you could forward these comments to the ones making these decisions.
    
    In this day in age where the internet is becoming more integral in our lives, having reasonable bandwidth caps is far more important than faster speeds. I still remember the times when Rogers used to offer unlimited usage many years ago and now we are faced with abysmal caps.
    
    Other than greed I don’t see why Rogers could not offer say 250GB for all their tiers, I don’t want to pay $99 for Extreme Plus just to take advantage of larger caps. In my personal opinion, having say unlimited or even 250GB of usage doesn’t mean that the customer is going to abuse the bandwidth every month, to me it’s more of safety precaution. Some months I may use 200GB, but some I may use as little as 40GB.
    
    Also not increasing the caps on Express, probably the most subscribed tier, is for pure greed. I’m sure Rogers loves users paying overage. Similarily, why did Rogers increase the max overage fee from $25 to $50? I mean there are too many examples of greed overtaking what customers actually want and need.
Patrick says: July 21st, 2011 a 10:48am

All I see here is that I spend $360 a month on Rogers services and due to the fact that to try and conserve wheatever money I have left and use the Express package instead of the Extreme package (at $4300 a year im already spending enough on these services) I am specifically being left out while someone that only pays $60 a month to Rogers for the extreme package is reaping huge benefits. I’m unimpressed.
Jonah says: July 21st, 2011 a 11:45am

We dumped our Express service for a provider that has unlimited bandwidth. I think we use like 80 GB a month. Caps are stupid and hurt the economy. What do we pay $60 a month for… to read the news?
Alph says: July 21st, 2011 a 11:52am

I realize that Rogers has to keep caps low in order to keep an unfair clamp on streaming competitors like Netflix. Ever notice that Rogers own service doesn’t count against caps?

Anyway, increased speed is always welcome, but they’re still too slow. It’s dumb that your LTE service is going to be faster than home service in some configurations.
Michael says: July 21st, 2011 a 12:01pm

At least Rogers is giving use these increases “no additional cost*.”

* “no additional cost” equals “an extra $1.50 to $3 per month.”
- RogersElise says: July 25th, 2011 a 6:27pm
  
  Hi Michael. For customers who already have the Docsis 3.0 modem – and there are many out there – there is no additional cost at all.
Matt says: July 21st, 2011 a 12:23pm

I understand that data caps are put in place to prevent people from “hogging” the internet and to deter piracy. Back in the dail-up days a 60GB cap might have been fair. But we live in the new era of streaming and digital downloads.

With the Express plan, downloading at 1.25MB/s for 13.5 hours brings you to your limit. If you change that over to time based usage, you’d see that you only have internet for 1.8% of the month. If we go over to one of your competitors, (lets just call them TS) it would be 66 hours, and 9.1%. It’s a much more realistic data cap.

All I’m asking for is that 250GB be the bottom tier, and it going up from there.
Koby says: July 21st, 2011 a 12:43pm

This is truly pathetic, how can you even be proud of that plan?!?
Rogers is the most draconian and money-hungry corporation with little care to their customer needs. I bet this changes are due to the massive exodus of customers toward Techsavvy, “listening to customers” is a big bluff that may sound good on a press release but for the larger customer base it is a pure lie.
Competition in Canada is the worst in the western world, few companies control the communications market and rob their customers for little service. Look at the ISP at the EU, you get crazy fast speeds, no caps for fraction of the price.

I have few more months for my “Lock-in” with rogers, they I will set myself free and move to Techsavvy.
Sam says: July 21st, 2011 a 2:05pm

Just a question, when will these new caps come into effect? I have the ultimate package, looking forward to the 250GB cap
- RogersElise says: July 21st, 2011 a 3:47pm
  
  Hi Sam. These changes will come into effect on July 26.
  - Sam says: July 23rd, 2011 a 4:57pm
    
    Thanks Elise,
    Ya everyone stop bitching, they made an improvement, they didn’t have to but they did. If express isn’t enough for you up your plan, difference between express and one level up amounts to just over 100$ a year, suck it up. For those talking about netflix an HD movie is 4 gigs, you would need to watch 62 movies a month on ultimate to exceed that. Again if 60GB isn’t enough for you, up your plan
    - Wammy says: August 8th, 2011 a 9:45pm
      
      Sorry Sam you have it all wrong. Lack of competition in Canada is the reason Canadians pay amongst the highest rates for internet access in the world.
      
      The pressure to up the caps is there because many people are switching to third party internet providers offering cheaper rates with higher and sometimes unlimited caps.
      
      The catch is, third party internet providers are not available to all Canadians, so many are stuck with no choice.
      
      If TPIA becomes more available country wide, you’ll see Rogers making many changes.
      
      Some of you are too young to remember, but not long ago we were paying $3-$5 per minute for a long distance call within North America. It was competition that drove that price down.
      
      Interestingly enough, even for pennies a minute, the old phone company is still turning record profits.
      
      Think about it.
Renaud Bourassa says: July 21st, 2011 a 2:49pm

How can you claim this is an improvement when a year ago, Extreme went from 95GB to 80GB? Far from offering a better service, you are basically just going back to how it was back then. Plus, at full speed (and you are not likely at all to achieve this), your connection will last you 1 hour and 10 minutes. Is this a freaking joke?
Disappointed says: July 21st, 2011 a 2:53pm

These changes are disappointing. Not only was the Express package (the most popular one) barely touched, but all the changes seem to be designed to encourage people to hand over more money.

I already have a modem that works fine with the new speeds, but apparently I now need to hand over more cash for a new modem just “because”.

I already pay for overpriced, under-featured Internet service, and my package doesn’t get any useful performance increases.

Pathetic. I was holding off from switching from Rogers because I was hoping for some reasonable changes, but now I have no reason to stay. Switching to a more expensive package to be able to use my Internet like a normal person who likes to consume online media is simply not an option.

Wasted opportunity and a shamelessly marketing driven move by Rogers.
Branden J says: July 21st, 2011 a 3:59pm

My friend was one of the early adopters of the Ultimate tier and the DOCSIS 3 modem gateway crap.

EVERY time we connect PC’s to it wireless and try anything that is a stead stream (videos, downloads, etc) it causes the modem to crash and reset. :S
Not A Cry Baby says: July 21st, 2011 a 6:09pm

All you babies out there. Stop crying about ROgers imprOving their service. Get a life and move on
Phil says: July 21st, 2011 a 8:33pm

Who cares about faster download speeds when you already have plans up to 50 Mbps. When will you offer faster UPLOAD speeds? The current upload speeds top out at 2Mbps. This is pathetic considering that the download speeds are up to 25 times faster! I’d rather have 15Mbps down and 5Mbps up than 24Mbps down and 1Mbps up any time, and I’m sure many other people would like to have that option. Oh, thanks for returning some of the usage limits to what they used to be. But what about the lightest pans, are they still stuck at 2GB and 15GB per month? That’s just wrong. Clearly you are NOT listening to your clients.

These new plans are obviously just a marketing gimmick designed to force your clients to the higher-speed tiers, as well as to encourage people to hit monthly overage charges faster, under the pretense of offering better packages.
Adam says: July 21st, 2011 a 9:28pm

250GB limit is the Max? Comeon, you can’t be serious. I myself could chew through that no problem, what about student houses? 4 people with Netflix, streaming, online gaming, etc. This is a complete joke. There’s a reason I’ve been telling people to avoid Rogers internet, and these rediculous caps are it. I’d pay more for a higher cap, price isn’t the issue, but handcuffing us is.