TORONTO – Shaw Communications Inc. president Peter Bissonnette says the company hasn’t made any decisions regarding usage-based pricing structures despite critics’ claims that Shaw is moving forward with the pricing scheme.
Non-profit advocacy group OpenMedia.ca has released a recording of a conference call in which it says Shaw executives indicate they are going ahead with internet metering.
Bissonnette said Monday that although Shaw believes most customers agree users who consume more bandwidth should pay more, he also said the company is carefully examining what the thresholds should be that determine when a user must begin paying overage fees.
On a conference call with Shaw shareholders on April 13, Shaw CEO Brad Shaw said:
“We are of the mind that we still have a tremendous upside in terms of pricing power on our Internet services. And through the course of our consultations with our customers, I think what we’ve seen from that is a recognition that the principle of “˜if you use more, you should pay more’ holds true.
“But we believe that as we work our way through some of the feedback that we received from them that there really is a win-win for our shareholders as well as our customers in the way that we offer our tiers of Internet services.”
When asked when an update on Shaw’s pricing plan can be expected, Shaw said, “We’re certainly going to clarify our pricing and packaging plans probably in the late spring, probably May, early June.”
The usage-based pricing scheme has been widely criticized, and would see customers pay a flat rate for internet usage as well as extra charges should they exceed their monthly data limit.
– With files from the Canadian Press
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