O Canada! > Canadian > Canadian Broadband > Globe & Other 2011-44 (UBB) articles

Globe & Other 2011-44 (UBB) articles

quote:

---

"Though it is the 'final' decision on the issue, like other CRTC rulings, it can be appealed at the regulator [CRTC], at the Federal Court, or beyond both to the Federal Cabinet, which has [sometimes] varied major decisions in the past."

---

quote:

---

"Unlimited Internet service died today," said John Lawford of the Ottawa-based Public Interest Advocacy Centre. [PIAC]

"(A) 15 per cent discount ensures only that independents (Internet service providers) will survive the imposition of usage-based billing as businesses.

There will be no money left over to actually differentiate their service to the point of unlimited."

---

Today's CBC article

quote:

---

"The CRTC has once again left the wolves in charge of the henhouse. Canadians have come out in unprecedented numbers and demanded an affordable internet, and while there is evidence that this has moved the CRTC, they have not gone nearly far enough," said Steve Anderson, OpenMedia.ca's national co-ordinator.

"It is deeply disappointing that the commission has decided to give a few companies a free hand to engage in economic discrimination and crush innovation. Now is the moment for forward-looking, visionary policymaking, not half-measures and convoluted compromises with the companies trying to kill the open internet."

---

reply to Davesnothere

Re: Globe Continues UBB Coverage

-
As suggested in the 2nd quote of my first post.

And there appears to be no control against BHell (etc) offering promos to their own end-users to bust that discount, as such not having to also discount THOSE temporary rates to the wholesalers like TSI.

reply to Davesnothere
.
The Financial Post had this :

»business.financialpost.com/2011/···billing/

reply to Davesnothere

Re: Globe & Other 2011-44 (UBB) articles

reply to Davesnothere
.
Below is Teksavvy's Official Response to CRTC Decision 2011-44 (Press Release) (.PDF)

»/r0/download/1···Fees.pdf

reply to Davesnothere
»www.reuters.com/article/idUSN252···20110125

its starting to spread but I still have no faith.

reply to Davesnothere
.
The Reuters story quotes Rocky, using different words than in TSI's press release.

AND, it quotes March 31 as 'UBB Day', where all other sources which I have seen say that it is March 1st.

Even more confusion.. so what is it? March 1st, or March 31st?

March 1st

reply to Davesnothere
CRTC sets usage-based billing rates for small ISPs
»www.montrealgazette.com/technolo···ory.html

Third-party ISPs provide service to about four per cent of the total Internet users, using the infrastructure owned by the large telecommunications companies, which in this province are Videotron Ltd. and Bell Canada Enterprises.

...snip...

In a statement, Mirko Babic, BCE’s senior vice-president of regulatory and government affairs, said usage-based billing is a way for Bell to manage traffic so that it doesn’t get out of hand.

“Flat-rated pricing structures are no longer viable for either retail or wholesale services given the ongoing explosive growth in Internet traffic and the load it puts on network,” Babic said. “Bell is making multi-billion-dollar investments in new broadband, but pricing structures from the 1990s need to be brought in line with the realities of 21st century Internet usage.”

But Miller pointed out that in its ruling Tuesday, the CRTC acknowledged that telecom companies already recover most of the costs related to heavy Internet users.

“The commission is saying that from what they know of their infrastructure is that their costs are covered by the retail price, so for them to charge above and beyond for usage-based billing is pure profit,” Miller said.

Lynne Fancy, a spokesperson for the CRTC, said the bandwidth caps don’t just serve the profit margins of the companies, they ensure that there isn’t too much congestion on the networks. She said there has been a problem with capacity at times, and companies have been forced to throttle, or decrease the Internet speeds of their users.

“The commission showed a preference to economic traffic management practices, as opposed to throttling, because we felt that put the user in control, and allows customers to match usage with willingness to pay,” Fancy said.

Charlie Angus, the NDP Member of Parliament who speaks about digital issues, said he disagrees with the rationale behind usage-based billing. He said it will lead to huge increases for customers.

“What we need to have is clear and transparent rules so it’s being used in a measured capacity and it’s not just instituting the principle that every time you turn on the Internet, they can ding you for fees like they do with cellphones,” Angus said.”We’ve seen this before; when we were told that deregulating cable rates would give customers a big benefit. We were paying 60 to 100 per cent in no time.”

There you have it! The CRTC basically said Throttling should now be taken out.

reply to diskace

reply to Davesnothere
Peter Nowak article.

»wordsbynowak.com/2011/01/26/mete···failure/

reply to Davesnothere
Google News link aggregator for it:

»news.google.ca/news/more?pz=1&cf···&topic=t

reply to shikotee

reply to Davesnothere

ARSTECHNICA's coverage

reply to Davesnothere

Re: Globe & Other 2011-44 (UBB) articles