Rogers’ mobile TV now counts against data cap

Rogers Communications Inc. has changed the pricing of data used by its Anyplace TV app, writing on its website that as of Aug. 18, standard data charges would apply to customers who use the app while on its wireless network. Previously, customers could pay $5 a month to view 10 hours of programming through the app, also called RAP-TV. The CRTC is currently considering an undue preference complaint against the Anyplace TV app and similar services offered by BCE Inc. and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron subsidiary, which allow customers who opt to pay for a certain amount of viewing hours to watch videos without it counting against their regular data caps. Rogers spokeswoman Jennifer Kett said the company began notifying customers of the change in June. “The $5 plan was originally designed to encourage customers to try the RAP-TV mobile service and become comfortable with accessing video content on their device. We regularly review our products and pricing, and decided to simplify the RAP-TV experience by applying standard data charges to all data accessed over our wireless network,” Kett said in an email Thursday. She added that Rogers will continue participating in the CRTC proceeding. In early August, the CRTC issued a round of interrogatories in that process, which focused on companies’ throttling of customers’ wireless connections while encouraging them to use mobile-TV services that “ considerable bandwidth.” The deadline for those responses was Thursday. Previous arguments in the proceeding centred around whether mobile-TV services should be considered broadcasting or Internet services. Telecom blogger Ben Klass, who filed the original complaint against Bell that was later combined with complaints by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) against Rogers and Videotron, said in an interview Thursday that Rogers’ decision is “a good step.” He said that because mobile-TV apps are still in the early stages, “it’s important to keep the platform neutral,” since allowing companies to give their own services preference now could have wider implications in the future. Klass added that if companies had to treat their apps in a neutral way, it would give them motivation to increase customers’ data limits in general. He said the best outcome of the CRTC process would be for the other companies to say: “You know what? We are going to just treat this like other data and if people want to use it, we’ll give them a more generous data cap.” Klass noted that Rogers is also considering launching its own over-the-top (OTT) service. “It could very well be that this mobile-TV thing was, for Rogers, a more of a testing-the-waters-type thing, and they may be moving to this other, more Netflix-like service,” he said. Videotron and Bell did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

Rogers’ mobile TV now counts against data cap

Broadcast | August 21, 2014

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Rogers’ mobile TV now counts against data cap

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