In ‘Scummy’ Move, Shaw Makes Internet More Expensive, Much Slower

What a way to ring in the new year.

Shaw will start 2015 off by slapping consumers in the face: the company plans to raise home internet prices by 10% in January, while slashing already mediocre speeds by up to 50%.

“Canadian Internet users everywhere ought to be outraged that Big Telecom giants like Shaw are trying to charge customers more money for slower Internet,” says Josh Tabish of OpenMedia, a grassroots pro-Internet organization headquartered in Vancouver.

The news leaked onto Reddit recently and, needless to say, people aren’t pleased. “That is about the scummiest thing I’ve seen a company do to its clients,” one user proclaimed.

 

 

“Make no mistake: if Shaw gets away with this, others like Bell, Rogers, and Telus will soon follow,” Tabish says, a safe bet when looking at the history of the industry’s oligopoly.

Tabish also notes that, regardless of how insulting Shaw’s looming actions are to Canadian consumers, not much can be done. “There’s little to prevent telecom giants like Shaw from continuing to cut service speeds while price-gouging Canadians,” he says.

“Canadians are already paying some of the highest prices in the world for what many know is horrible service,” Tabish added. “Shaw should stop being such a grinch and immediately reverse these service cuts and price-hikes.”

Update: “These packages do not affect current customer subscriptions, but existing customers will be welcome to upgrade when the packages are launched,” Shaw says. “These new services will introduce faster download speeds and greater value for customers who have our most popular tiers by providing more value per Mbps (Megabits Per Second) download rate.”

 

Table: Reddit