Liberals Against Usage-Based Internet Billing

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Liberals Against Usage-Based Internet Billing

Postby jon » Tue Feb 01, 2011 9:12 am

Liberals opposing usage-based billing ruling by CRTC for Internet

OTTAWA - The federal Liberals are opposing a CRTC decision they say will allow major Internet service providers to put a cap on how much data consumers can download and ultimately lead to higher Internet rates.

The Liberals say the decision, which allows usage-based billing to go ahead, limits competition and choice for consumers.

Industry Minister Tony Clement has said he will review the decision, as a groundswell of complaint begins to arise from Internet users.

Clement says the CRTC ruling will be studied carefully to ensure the industry remains competitive and that consumers are treated fairly.

An online campaign by OpenMedia.ca has bombarded Clement with thousands of messages urging the minister to take a look at the decision.

The group's online petition has received more than 200,000 signatures asking the minister to overturn the ruling.
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Re: Liberals Against Usage-Based Internet Billing

Postby Howaboutthat » Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:03 pm

Has anyone seen details on what the 'cap' could be?

I'd be hardpressed to use more than 5GB month, but then I'm not downloading tons of music or tv shows etc.
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Re: Liberals Against Usage-Based Internet Billing

Postby jon » Tue Feb 01, 2011 1:16 pm

Everything I've read has said that, at least Shaw and TELUS, will simply enforce the published Monthly Bandwidth limits they have had for each of their types of Internet plans since Broadband ("high speed Internet") was rolled out in the 1990s. For example, "Shaw High Speed" is limited to 60GB per month. "TELUS High Speed" is 75GB per month. Both of these are their "standard offering". Each has a LITE plan, and several faster speed plans.
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Re: Liberals Against Usage-Based Internet Billing

Postby Buckley » Tue Feb 01, 2011 2:56 pm

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/pm-orders-review-of-internet-billing/article1890567/

Apparently Harper's concerned about it too (or rather concerned that he's going to have his inbox filled next, he won't be able to filter it down to just the joke e-mails and erectile dysfunction spam that he enjoys reading). Not sure if this will mean anything but one can hope this ruling gets overturned, for me it is more the principle of things... I have no interest in paying the same amount, or more money, for less than what I already had. The companies can cry all they want but the problem is they can attach whatever dollar amount they want to "bandwidth", no one really knows what it costs to push data through servers!
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Re: Liberals Against Usage-Based Internet Billing

Postby Paul P » Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:26 pm

Buckley wrote: The companies can cry all they want but the problem is they can attach whatever dollar amount they want to "bandwidth", no one really knows what it costs to push data through servers!


I'd say that's a 'strike' right down the middle for Buckley.
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Re: Liberals Against Usage-Based Internet Billing

Postby jon » Tue Feb 01, 2011 7:10 pm

Buckley wrote:no one really knows what it costs to push data through servers

Several people claim to. "Reed Hastings, chief executive of Internet-based video streaming service Netflix Inc., claimed in a letter to shareholders last week that the cost for an ISP to deliver a single gigabyte of data was 'less than a penny and falling.'" ref. - http://business.financialpost.com/2011/ ... d-billing/

A Teksavvy spokesperson was quoted recently with a number well below 5 cents a Gigabyte as the actual cost for Rogers and Bell.

Compare that to the $1 to $2.50 per GB threatened by Bell and others as penalties for customers exceeding their monthly bandwidth limits. Depending on the plan, Shaw charges $1-$2 per GB over the limit; TELUS $2 for all but LITE which is $5. Despite the newspaper stories about drops in the monthly bandwidth limits, still no sign of that from either Shaw or TELUS.
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