On June 9th we introduced our Superhero Summer Savings dealio, with the hopes it would jack up sales over what is usually a down time in the telecom industry. With everyone going on vacation over the 8-12 weeks of heat we (usually) get, our new customer counts remain steady, but slower than the rest of the year.

This summer however, things have gone a wee bit differently. June was a record month for sales for Worldline, by a lot. Despite missing the first week of the month before introducing our special, overall we added 25% more Unlimited High Speed Internet and Unlimited High Speed Internet and Home Phone Bundle customers for the month than we averaged over the first five months of the year.

In July, we really rocked it essentially doubling the usual number of customers. As in a 100% increase over our what was our old monthly average. What about August you ask? Only a week in and we’re on pace to top even that!

To say we’re happy about this is an understatement, but we shouldn’t be all that surprised really. All we did was finally give Canadians what they wanted; straightforward pricing. No added fees, no confusing add-ons to the monthly invoice. Basically it’s what you see is what you get with the first invoice looking just like the next one. Simple.

The only thing we feel bad about? We didn’t do it sooner.

So welcome to all our new Worldine customers. We work hard everyday to be your friendly, neighborhood ISP and our fair pricing policy is just the start.

The numbers are in and once again Netflix is changing the way Canadians get their entertainment Just under one third (32%) of English speaking Canadians are subscribers to the streaming video service, up a staggering 25% from just one year ago.

Media Technology Monitor (MTM) issued their latest 2014 survey last week here’s some of the highlights:

Netflix is also being used primarily to access TV content, with users spending just over half of their time watching TV content via the service. More than 80% of its subscribers (88%) access its content in a typical week.

Subscribers watch it, on average, more than 6 hours a week.

Nearly two thirds of Netflix users have had their subscription for more than a year, with 32% of users saying they have subscribed to the service for more than two years. The service also tends to encourage binge viewing, with 69% of subscribers indicating that they have watched three or more episodes of a TV show in a single sitting.

So – that’s a lot of viewing. And a LOT of bandwidth. Here’s some numbers on that. An Internet connection running at 5 Mbps will use 2.8 GB of data an hour according to Netflix. So the average Canadian, before doing anything else online, burns through 67 GB of data a month, which is way above what the Big Three cap their data at for their average plans. That means that Netflix, which is changing the way Canadians digest their video entertainment, is costing them a lot more that the low regular monthly fee they are charged. Unless, of course, they have Unlimited High Speed Internet.

Then, what happens if those folks have kids? Netflix is a huge bandwidth user. Games? Multiply that by a bunch. Today’s video games aren’t just an hour or two in length. They typically vary from dozens and sometimes hundreds of hours.

The Last of Us was a huge zombie thriller gaming hit from 2013. When in game mode, it’s main story takes about 15 hours to complete, meaning the average player would use 35 to 40 GB out of their monthly cap. For just that one game.

Unlimited Internet from Worldline isn’t just a great way to save on your monthly Internet bills. It’s also a great way to avoid those dreaded data cap monthly surprises that Canadians have had to suffer through for too many years.

And here’s the thing. It’s only going to get worse. The more our society is being driven forward by the Internet, through both entertainment and work, our data costs are going to continue to increase.

Most Canadians don’t know that have an option, but they really should.