TORONTO – While Canadians do more things online more often every day – from playing games and streaming movies to making social media updates and downloading music – they remain uninformed about the limits their internet service providers have placed on their web connections.
According to Solution Research Group’s Digital Life Canada quarterly, most Canadians (66%) have no idea if they have a usage cap for their home Internet and, even if they do know, what the cap may be. That figure is virtually unchanged from 68% a year earlier, despite all the buzz and public outcry about usage-based billing a year ago.
A majority of Canadians ( 56%) also don’t know the download speed of their home Internet connection and 64% of them also have no idea how many gigabytes they consume through their home Internet connection each month, says the report. That figure is down slightly from 67% a year ago, which illustrates lack of knowledge that continues to be prevalent in the marketplace.
The bottom line, says SRG? ISPs who advertise their data and speed specs in their ads to gain customers must be more creative to make sure the message hits the mark. Plus, when consumers do wake up to the reality and costs of surpassing those limits, they may wake up angry with their ISP.
The data comes from the company’s quarterly detailed interviews with 1,000 Canadian consumers on key metrics and trends related to: mobile entertainment, home entertainment including TV, video and gaming, online video and social media
