Have you heard of “Usage Based Billing”? It’s the hottest craze around the CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television Commission).
Basically, the CRTC recently approved a ruling that lets the country’s major ISP and owners of the network infrastructure charge more to resellers – ISPs who purchase bandwidth from those who own the infrastructure.
Learn more on OpenMedia.ca.
Basically the major ISPs and CRTC have sold this to the few Canadians who pay attention to this sort of thing by saying “The few people who use the internet heavily are taking your bandwidthz and slowing your Internetz.”
This is bunk, and it’s bad for Canada. Internet service in Canada is already some of the worst in the developed world. This new ruling will set us back years.
It’s going to hold back citizens, and small businesses who develop web services for us, from keeping up (or catching up) with our world partners in the use of high-bandwidth applications. Netflix, a newcomer to Canada, and Apple’s iTunes downloads will fail because our ISPs will have strangled our free access to competitive service providers.
Now, lets go back to the sales pitch we’ve been fed. “We don’t want to pay to support the heavier usage of internet power users, so the ISPs are protecting our interests, and making the power users pay more.”
It’s like saying “I don’t want to pay taxes to support a healthcare system where other people need it more than I do.” I don’t know about you, but I’m freaking proud of Canada’s healthcare system, flaws and all. I think most Canadian’s are happy that we have universal healthcare. And if you support ubiquitous access to healthcare, wouldn’t you support ubiquitous access to the vast amount of information, art, entertainment, and the people in your lives via the Internet for a competitive price?
Maybe you don’t use the Internet much, but you have a kid who does. When you start getting extra charges on your ISP bill after March, don’t blame your kid for surfing too much. It’s the CRTC and our major ISPs. They changed the game, your kid is doing the same thing they’ve done in the past.
If you’re upset about this, add your name to the petition on OpenMedia.ca and write nice, handwritten letters to your MPs, to Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, and to Stephen Harper, our Prime Minister. Make a stink. This is for Canada.
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