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Canadians Pine For CRTC's Destruction
One of our regular users makes news for disbanding petition...

Last week Canadian regulatory agency the CRTC once again ruled against independent Canadian ISPs by granting a Bell Canada request to double dip wholesale customers by charging them for up front bandwidth, then charging a new usage-based billing (UBB) charge on the other end. This has been only the latest in a series a rulings that independent ISPs say are aimed to put them out of business. The CBC notes that independent ISPs and content creators are now pushing to have the CRTC disbanded -- however unlikely the request.

The CBC references a new new petition created by one of our users, 23-year-old Ottawa software company employee Mike Lerner (mlerner):
quote:
We, the undersigned, believe that the CRTC has become a burden on the Canadian public and are failing to perform their duties in the interest of the Canadian public and that of a fair and unbiased telecom policy.
Of course online petitions are the digital equivalent of a pebble being thrown in a lake, but the sentiment remains no less potent. The CRTC, staffed heavily by former incumbent Canadian ISP employees and lawyers, mirrors the heavily-lobbied dysfunction systemic in the regulatory process of their neighbors to the south. As we've argued in the past, it's largely impossible to fix any technology problem so long as regulators are in the pockets of their wealthiest constituents. Would dissolving the CRTC fix this, or simply give mega-ISPs free reign?