Data Caps & Usage Limits on Business Internet

Good news for most Canadian businesses: data caps on wired business internet plans are essentially a thing of the past. If you’re on a fibre or cable plan from Bell, TELUS, Rogers, or most regional carriers, you almost certainly have unlimited data included.

But “almost certainly” isn’t the same as “always.” Data caps still exist in some corners of the Canadian market, particularly on satellite, fixed wireless, and certain legacy plans. And the way Starlink handles data for business customers has changed significantly in 2025 and 2026, creating new complexity for businesses that rely on satellite connectivity.

Here’s what you need to know about data caps, usage limits, and throttling on business internet in Canada in 2026.

Where Data Caps Stand in 2026

The landscape has shifted dramatically from even a few years ago. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, all major Canadian carriers temporarily waived data caps on residential plans. Many of those caps simply never came back, and the competitive pressure to offer unlimited data has only increased since then.

Here’s the current state across the major Canadian business internet providers:

Starlink Business: Data Caps Explained

This is where things get complicated, and where data limits still genuinely matter for Canadian businesses in 2026. Starlink has overhauled its business plan structure multiple times, and the current system works quite differently from traditional ISP data caps.

How Starlink Priority Data Works

Starlink’s business plans (called “Priority” plans) use a tiered system based on “priority data.” You purchase a monthly bucket of priority data, which gives you the fastest available speeds. Once you exhaust your priority data for the month, your speeds drop dramatically to 1 Mbps download and 0.5 Mbps upload until your next billing cycle, or until you purchase additional data.

There are two types of Priority plans:

• Local Priority is for use within your country. It carries a monthly terminal access fee of $40/month, plus the cost of your data bucket.
• Global Priority is for international use. It carries a monthly terminal access fee of $150/month, plus data costs.

Priority data is purchased in blocks of 50 GB or 500 GB. For Canadian businesses, the approximate cost works out to roughly $0.50 per additional GB if you need to top up beyond your plan’s included data. You can set up automatic top-ups so your service doesn’t suddenly throttle in the middle of a workday, but this obviously means unpredictable monthly bills.

What This Means for Your Business

If your business relies on Starlink as its primary internet, you need to carefully estimate your monthly data usage and choose a priority data bucket that covers it, with some headroom for busy months. Running out of priority data mid-month would throttle your entire operation to nearly unusable speeds.

For businesses using Starlink as a backup connection (which is our recommendation for most businesses that have wired options available), the data cap is less concerning because you’ll only use it during outages on your primary connection.

What Are Data Caps and How Do They Work?

For businesses that are dealing with data caps (primarily those on satellite or fixed wireless), here’s a clear explanation of the mechanics.

A data cap is a limit on the total amount of data you can transfer in a billing period, usually one month. It counts both downloads (receiving data, like loading web pages, streaming video, and downloading files) and uploads (sending data, like video calls, cloud backups, and email attachments). It’s measured in gigabytes (GB) or terabytes (TB).

This is different from bandwidth, which is the speed of your connection. Think of bandwidth as the width of a highway and data as the total number of cars that drive on it in a month. A 100 Mbps connection tells you how fast data moves; a 500 GB data cap tells you how much total data you can move before something changes.

Types of Data Limits

Not all data limits work the same way. There are three common approaches:

• Hard caps apply a strict limit. Once you hit it, you’re either charged overage fees per GB, or your service is suspended until the next billing cycle. Starlink’s Priority plans use a form of hard cap where speeds drop to 1 Mbps after exhaustion.
• Soft caps reduce your speed after you exceed the limit, but don’t charge extra. You can keep using the internet, just more slowly. Some residential plans historically used this approach.
• Fair use policies don’t specify an exact limit, but the provider reserves the right to slow your connection if they determine you’re using “excessive” data. This is common on plans marketed as “unlimited” but is rarely enforced on wired business plans from major carriers.

How Much Data Does a Business Actually Use?

Even on unlimited plans, it’s useful to understand your data usage, both for choosing the right speed tier and for businesses on capped plans that need to budget carefully.

Here are some common business activities and their approximate data usage:

A typical small office with 5 to 10 employees doing standard knowledge work (email, web browsing, video calls, cloud applications) will use roughly 200 to 800 GB per month. An office with heavy video conferencing, cloud backups, or media work could easily exceed 1 TB monthly.

Where Data Caps Still Matter in Canada

While data caps have largely disappeared from mainstream wired internet in Canada, there are still situations where they apply. If your business falls into any of these categories, data management is still an important consideration.

Satellite Internet (Starlink, Xplore)

As detailed above, Starlink’s Priority plans have explicit data buckets. Xplore (formerly Xplornet) also has plans with usage limits on some of its satellite and fixed wireless packages, particularly in rural areas. If satellite is your primary or only option, you’ll need to actively manage data usage and budget for potential overages or top-ups.

Fixed Wireless in Rural Areas

Some regional fixed wireless providers in rural Canada still offer plans with data caps, particularly where the backhaul infrastructure connecting the tower to the broader internet is limited. These caps can range from 100 GB to 500 GB per month, depending on the provider and plan.

LTE/5G Home Internet as Business Backup

If you’re using an LTE or 5G wireless home internet plan as a business backup connection, be aware that some wireless plans include “fair use” policies. Bell, Rogers, and TELUS all offer 5G home internet plans marketed as unlimited, but wireless plans sometimes include fine print about network management during congestion. For backup use (where you’re only relying on it during outages), this is unlikely to be an issue.

Legacy Plans

If your business has been on the same internet plan for several years without reviewing it, there’s a chance you’re still on a legacy plan with data caps that have since been removed from newer plans. It’s worth logging into your provider’s portal or calling to check your current plan details. You may be able to switch to a current unlimited plan at the same or lower price.

Tips for Businesses on Capped Plans

If you’re on a plan with data limits and can’t switch to unlimited, here are practical strategies to manage your usage:

• Monitor your usage regularly. Most providers offer usage tracking through their online portal or app (MyBell, MyTELUS, MyRogers). Starlink’s app also shows priority data usage. Set up alerts at 50%, 75%, and 90% of your cap so you’re never caught off guard.
• Schedule large transfers for off-peak times. If your provider has peak and off-peak policies, run cloud backups, software updates, and large file syncs overnight. Even on plans without formal peak/off-peak pricing, this reduces the chance of network congestion affecting your experience.
• Audit your connected devices. Security cameras streaming to the cloud, automatic software updates on every device, and unused tablets still syncing data can quietly consume hundreds of gigabytes. Review what’s connected and what’s actually necessary.
• Compress and optimize. Use compressed file formats for sharing, reduce video call quality settings when full HD isn’t necessary, and configure cloud backup software to use incremental backups rather than full backups.
• Consider a secondary connection. If you’re on a capped satellite connection, adding a low-cost LTE connection for non-critical traffic (like streaming, casual browsing, and software updates) can significantly reduce the load on your primary capped connection. This keeps your priority data available for business-critical activities.

What Is Bandwidth Throttling?

Throttling is when your internet provider intentionally reduces your connection speed after you hit a usage threshold. Instead of charging you more money, they slow you down.

This is the mechanism Starlink now uses on its Priority plans. Once your priority data bucket is empty, your speeds drop to 1 Mbps download and 0.5 Mbps upload. At those speeds, basic email and text web pages work (slowly), but video calls, cloud applications, large file transfers, and anything else a modern business depends on become effectively unusable.

Some other providers use throttling differently. Certain mobile wireless plans marketed as “unlimited” in Canada will reduce speeds after a high-speed data threshold (for example, full speed for the first 50 GB, then reduced speeds for the remainder of the month). This is common on consumer wireless plans but rare on wired business internet.

If you’re evaluating a plan that mentions throttling, ask your provider specifically: “What speed will my connection be reduced to after the threshold?” The answer matters. Being throttled to 10 Mbps is quite different from being throttled to 1 Mbps or 512 Kbps.

Should You Upgrade to an Unlimited Plan?

If your business is currently on a plan with data caps and an unlimited option is available in your area, the answer is almost always yes. The peace of mind alone is worth the price difference, and you eliminate the risk of surprise overage charges or throttled speeds during critical business operations.

Here’s a simple way to evaluate whether upgrading makes financial sense: compare the cost of upgrading to unlimited against what you’re currently paying in overage fees or the productivity cost of being throttled. If you’ve paid even one significant overage charge in the past year, the unlimited plan likely pays for itself.

For businesses in rural areas where unlimited wired internet isn’t available, the best strategy is to pair your capped connection with a secondary connection on a different technology. For example, a Starlink Priority plan for primary use combined with an LTE connection for overflow, or a fixed wireless plan combined with Starlink as backup. This gives you more total data capacity and redundancy for reliability.

Frequently Asked Questions