Canada reverses metered Internet decision

[nsane.forums]

Oops! Terrified by a critical mass of enraged broadband consumers, Canada's government is telling its telecom regulator to rescind its approval of metered or "usage based" billing, or else. Industry Minister Tony Clement is now insisting that Canada's Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has to undo the ruling.

Most Canadian newspapers are getting the same message from the top. The CRTC "should be under no illusion—the Prime Minister and Minister of Industry will reverse this decision unless the CRTC does it itself," a member of Canada's conservative government told the Toronto Star on Wednesday.

"Frankly, a decision like this is clearly not in the best interest of consumers," the unnamed senior official added. "This is a bread-and-butter issue."

Back to the drawing board

The CRTC approved usage-based billing late last year, allowing Bell Canada to charge smaller competitive ISPs by the gigabyte, a move which made it hard for those ISPs to offer flat-rate service any longer. In January, the regulator modified the move slightly, giving indie ISPs a 15 percent discount on wholesale access. But this wasn't enough to prevent ISPs like TekSavvy from publishing draconian new rate plans which dropped its data limit from 200GB to 25GB, while charging about CAN$10 a month more for a premium plan.

Since that move, Canadian pols have received thousands of furious messages from their constituents. A third of a million people (around 1 percent of Canada's population) have signed openmedia.ca's petition against the move. All this has obviously had an impact. Consider Clement's circumspect response to the CRTC decision in January.

"I am aware that an appeal has been initiated by a market participant," he noted. "As Canada's Industry Minister, it is my job to encourage an innovative and competitive marketplace and to ensure that Canadian consumers have real choices in the services they purchase. I can assure that, as with any ruling, these decisions will be studied carefully to ensure that competition, innovation and consumers were all fairly considered."

But there were no vagaries in his statements as of yesterday. "CRTC must go back to [the] drawing board," Clement declared. More details are coming on how this will play out as CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein is scheduled to speak before a House of Commons committee today.

Still, there's questions about how much this matters. Nearly all Canadians get their Internet from Bell Canada (DSL) or one of the big cable operators (who conveniently have carved up Canada geographically), and those companies will still be allowed to set low caps and high prices for their own subscribers.

View: Original Article

[threejay]

Hell yeah! :)

[oZ.]

finally! no stupid speed meter!!!

[alaindc]

Don't be too happy about this yet.

I just read that the CRTC president Konrad von Finckenstein accept to review the thing...BUT

He already have his idea about this.

In his view, he said, again, that powerusers who use internet more should pay more, and that "normal user" shouldn't have to pay an higher bill to compensate the bandwitch powerusers use. He don't want one price for all. I think that, what he mean about "normal user" is...something like old peoples checking their email, knowing nothing about all the services we can get on internet.

So...

The CRTC will review it, but already think it's the thing to do.

I think that the government will have to make the decision themself.

[oZ.]

Don't be too happy about this yet.

I just read that the CRTC president Konrad von Finckenstein accept to review the thing...BUT

He already have his idea about this.

In his view, he said, again, that powerusers who use internet more should pay more, and that "normal user" shouldn't have to pay an higher bill to compensate the bandwitch powerusers use. He don't want one price for all. I think that, what he mean about "normal user" is...something like old peoples checking their email, knowing nothing about all the services we can get on internet.

So...

The CRTC will review it, but already think it's the thing to do.

I think that the government will have to make the decision themself.

Canada fails if this goes down

[DKT27]

Canada still wants to "discipline the use of the Internet"

Unlike the parrot in the famous Monty Python sketch, it appears that metered Internet billing in Canada is not quite dead after all. Speaking at a House of Commons hearing today, the head of Canada's telecoms regulator made it clear that metered billing rules would indeed be delayed—but they could well reappear.

Konrad von Finckenstein, head of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), said that he has heard the "evident concern expressed by Canadians" about metered billing rules. Those rules would allow the dominant DSL provider, Bell Canada, to impose usage-based billing on the small indie ISPs that use parts of its network to offer service.

"We don't have a monopoly on wisdom," he admitted, adding that CRTC had last night decided to suspend the new rules for 60 days and to review its own decision. When pressed about changes that might be coming, von Finckenstein made clear that nothing may change. "I cannot tell you what the outcome of the review is," he repeated.

The government has now pledged publicly to block the rules in their current form, but the CRTC has yet to hear officially from any official on the matter. Though delayed, its rules currently remain in place.

Even if it changes the billing requirements, CRTC still wants to "find economic ways to discipline the use of the Internet," von Finckenstein said in response to a question. Companies like Netflix are "putting a great stress on the Internet and there's no incentive for companies to invest in maintaining the Internet." Usage-based billing would encourage people to adopt more bandwidth-efficient technologies (or to forgo things like Internet video altogether, which would be terrific for cable operators).

Besides, metering isn't new—"we're doing exactly the same thing with electricity."

And he defended the CRTC, pointing out (justly) that without its line-sharing rules, the indie ISPs wouldn't be around to complain about the new billing rules in the first place.

Even if the new billing rules are revoked completely, only indie ISPs would be affected, and they reach only a few percent of Canadian users. As von Finckenstein noted, most of Canada is a functional duopoly. No matter what happens, Bell and the cable companies will still be free to keep jamming low caps down subscribers' throats.

Further reading

• Read von Finckenstein's opening remarks (crtc.gc.ca)

Original Article

[oZ.]

Canada still wants to "discipline the use of the Internet"

Unlike the parrot in the famous Monty Python sketch, it appears that metered Internet billing in Canada is not quite dead after all. Speaking at a House of Commons hearing today, the head of Canada's telecoms regulator made it clear that metered billing rules would indeed be delayed—but they could well reappear.

Konrad von Finckenstein, head of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), said that he has heard the "evident concern expressed by Canadians" about metered billing rules. Those rules would allow the dominant DSL provider, Bell Canada, to impose usage-based billing on the small indie ISPs that use parts of its network to offer service.

"We don't have a monopoly on wisdom," he admitted, adding that CRTC had last night decided to suspend the new rules for 60 days and to review its own decision. When pressed about changes that might be coming, von Finckenstein made clear that nothing may change. "I cannot tell you what the outcome of the review is," he repeated.

The government has now pledged publicly to block the rules in their current form, but the CRTC has yet to hear officially from any official on the matter. Though delayed, its rules currently remain in place.

Even if it changes the billing requirements, CRTC still wants to "find economic ways to discipline the use of the Internet," von Finckenstein said in response to a question. Companies like Netflix are "putting a great stress on the Internet and there's no incentive for companies to invest in maintaining the Internet." Usage-based billing would encourage people to adopt more bandwidth-efficient technologies (or to forgo things like Internet video altogether, which would be terrific for cable operators).

Besides, metering isn't new—"we're doing exactly the same thing with electricity."

And he defended the CRTC, pointing out (justly) that without its line-sharing rules, the indie ISPs wouldn't be around to complain about the new billing rules in the first place.

Even if the new billing rules are revoked completely, only indie ISPs would be affected, and they reach only a few percent of Canadian users. As von Finckenstein noted, most of Canada is a functional duopoly. No matter what happens, Bell and the cable companies will still be free to keep jamming low caps down subscribers' throats.

Further reading

• Read von Finckenstein's opening remarks (crtc.gc.ca)

Original Article

sigh...UBB im ganna quit internet once this complies, can't afford bandwidth