Rogers’ anti-competition plans to cap bandwidth limit

Upon Netflix’s announcement to bring their online video rental services to Canada, Rogers lowered the bandwidth limit on two of their data plans shortly after.

Although Rogers urges that the changes are unrelated to Netflix’s expansion to Canada, it is hard to believe that Rogers isn’t attempting to prevent competition to their On Demand Online service that already allows Canadians to view TV shows and movies on their computers and mobile devices.

Rogers plans to implement the changes to new customers’ data plans, causing Canadians to grow wearier of the giant telecommunications player. Capping bandwidth limits would cause users to be less willing and less able to stream movies online since streaming takes up a lot of bandwidth and may lead to extra charges for exceeding the limits.

“Canadians have a lot of questions about what they’re doing right now,” said Steve Anderson, National Coordinator for OpenMedia. “There’s not really enough oversight to make sure they’re acting in the best interest of Canadians.”

Read more about Roger's new data limits.