As the COVID-19 virus keeps more of the workforce home, major Canadian internet service providers (ISPs) are removing the monthly data cap on their internet subscriptions.
While the unlimited services are only temporary, certain ISPs are hoping that they could help upkeep productivity in the meantime.
Some updates from ISPs include:
- Rogers and its flanker brand Fido have removed data caps until May 31. The company has also announced a six-month trial of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. In addition, they have removed long-distance calling fees until April 30.
- Bell and Telus have waived data overage charges for their home internet subscribers until April 30. Telus has also waived its pay-per-use roaming charges for postpaid Telus and Koodo Mobility customers outside of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
- TekSavvy has suspended data overage fees until April 5. The change is automatic and does not require any action from the customers.
As the COVID-19 continues to spread, companies are closing their offices and sending workers home to work remotely. To accommodate the influx, various enterprise communication tools have received temporary feature upgrades for free. They range from better video conferencing capabilities to increased participant counts. Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Zoho, and Cisco Webex are a few notable mentions.
For more news about how COVID-19 is impacting the industry, click here:
In a blogpost, Cloudflare reported that internet usage has greatly increased during both day and night since companies started to encourage their employees to work from home.
At the time of writing, Canada had 424 confirmed COVID-19 cases.