Vancouver Thinks Usage-Based Billing Is Lame

»Vancouver seeks to ban UBB

What's sad is that no other cities/communities/towns have signed on, despite a small campaign involving writing other municipal government leaders/media to prod them to look out west to see what can be done right in regards to internet access.

It appears most local community governments are PRO-UBB, simply for the fact that it doesn't impact them directly.

I guess I can see their point of view and why they don't care...

I'd be far less likely to care if my internet bill went up by $60/month if the government/my employer was footing the bill, and the local voters in your area don't give a toss about competitively priced access, only building massive hockey arenas, public transport, geared-to-income housing and increasing seniors benefits

How can you support Vancouver in this? Our benevolent leadership is trying to protect our precious telecom monopolies that control 95+% of television content delivery, landlines, mobile telephony and the Internet, from the dirty evil foreigners that constantly keep trying to debase the value of those golden services!
This year, I'm hoping that we'll finally get to beat Uganda as the world's mobile pricing leader and that we'll stay ahead in the future. $2.50 per minute FTW!

"will act as a tax on innovation, free expression, and empowerment"

Why not throw in the race card and children card too? I agree this is bad for competition and can hinder innovation but free expression and empowerment?

These guys know that they can bitch and moan all they want and nothing will happen but some good press.

I always get a laugh from local pols who pass non-binding resolutions that have nothing to do with why they were elected and for things totally out of their power and scope of authority.

Now something they could do something about is end the graft that makes local government a sinkhole of taxpayer dollars while returning nothing to the city.

You don`t get it. They are trying to get other cities to join in to send a message to the CRTC. There will not be any laws passed by the city or anything of the sort as that is not in their jurisdiction.

Politicians speaking about levying taxes??? What a laugh. Maybe they would like to subsidize by lowering property taxes and city parking. Get real!!

Actually, I'm rather surprised they didn't throw in the children card, as UBB will impact families, especially those who have multiple computers much more than it will single people. We have three computers and three users. If Bell gets away with lowering the cap from 60gb to 25gb like they have applied to do, then that is a measly allowance of 8.3gb per user per month. That's completely useless in this day and age.

The municipality cannot constitutionally restrict UBB from occurring, since the power to regulate telecommunications derives from the Federal government in Canada. However, I would think that Vancouver could implement an extortionate business tax on ISP's that exploit UBB in Vancouver. They could legitimately attack UBB economically. "Go ahead, use UBB, and pay up the ass for it Telus/Shaw."

Well that would be the way a local pol would think. Tax the business and the poor dummies who live in the city will hate the telco instead of the pols that added on another tax. And the people in the city will pay for it anyway because the PRICE for their service went up to cover the business tax. But the pols get to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters.

Honestly pathetic caps+insane overage fees= crippled internet for all which is good when you gotta compete with netflix i tunes justin.tv rev3 and all the other free online content. Is it really a shock that the 3/4 major ISPs in canada are doing this when they have been in the TV business for so long and care more about making us buy their services and preventing us from enjoying free services rather then buy their constantly over priced commercial filled garbage.

Only reason we are having constantly lowered caps is to prevent netflix from crushing rogers/bell/shaws over priced videos on demand which cost more then netflix does in a month for a video you can only watch once....

This is a few weeks old now, why haven't you covered the more concerning issue at present with Shaw reducing caps across the line and implementing overage charges?

Indeed its like shaw payed every media outlet to not mention their bhellshit overage fees and then reducing caps by over 30%.

Tip the story. It'll get published for sure.

The westerners have had a free ride long enough. Now it's time to pay more and i mean much more. Your options are move to another country, get a dedicated line, revert back to dial-up or quit the internet altogether. Satellite internet from America is also an option.

Just get this impression by looking at Ontario that is supposed to me most populous province in Canada?

I don't see anything close to the border near Chicago. Windsor is Detroit's cousin.

This is the most respect I've had for Canadians since Bob & Doug McKenzie! At least someone has some common sense and usage based billing can KISS MY BIG FAT AMERICAN A.... well, you know.

but ...

How could usage based billing put smaller ISPs out of business? For that matter, how could usage based billing put ANYONE out of business?

The concept is simple. It really is simple. I have ten pounds of steak and there are twenty people who want steak. One of them wants five pounds, two of them want two pounds, and the rest of them want one pound. If you do the math, there is a demand for about 26 pounds of steak (We assume that everyone else wants a pound) but there are only 20 to go around.

Should I charge each person that eats steak according to the weight he eats, or should I flat rate the menu and charge everyone the same and still let the pigs suck down the majority of the meat.

This is not hard... It really isn't.... and if you embrace it, you will have moved into the Twenty-First century. Bandwidth is a limited resource. It really is...

Bell Canada has a maximum charge of 30 soon to be 60 dollars a month for overuse fees. Rogers has an overuse maximum charge of 50 dollars a month. Both companies could increase the overuse charge. Almost everyone who uses netflix will incur overuse charges likely the maximum. Many people will just quit the internet or go back to dial-up. The smaller isp's usually have less bandwidth than Bell when it comes to dsl. If you have a dry line you pay extra each month with a smaller isp. You pay nothing extra with Bell. If you request service you pay extra with the smaller isp's and pay nothing extra with Bell. If you want something fixed Bell can do it in an instant but with the smaller isp's you're at the mercy of Bell and Bell is competing with the smaller isp's if you know what i mean. Also the smaller isp's are limited to 5 meg dsl on adsl1 while you can get 8 meg adsl1 with Bell. All overuse fees incurred by the smaller isp's are paid to Bell. The smaller isp's get none of the overuse fees.

Sure, but just remember that you're still getting your $40 a plate fee for providing the eating establishment.

You clearly don't understand the situation in canada.

Carriers are trying to offer 60gb maximum and ebb thereafter. In addition, they are trying to prevent third parties from continuing to offer 200gb and/or unlimited options.

This is far different from the US market where many large carriers offer 250gb or more. No one disagrees with some usage based control; what canada is doing though, is ridiculous.

Actually, in Ontario they are trying to implement a 25gb cap rather than a 60gb one on the wholesalers, to match their own offerings. If that goes through, then my teenagers will be cut off from Youtube and on-line gaming, with the internet being kept strictly for homework, e-mail and job searching. That's about all a 25gb cap is good for. To be honest, we can do all that on dial-up at a much cheaper price, so that is very much an option for us. I can't afford the overage fees, and our current usage for three computers is always just about at my current cap of 200gb. Under their new regime my costs are set to triple. They've already lost my television business, as I've installed OTA equipment, and now they stand to lose my internet business as well. Doesn't make much sense to me.

I received this e-mail from Primus 2 days ago:

"Dear Xx Xx,
As you may have heard, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has recently approved Bell Canadas request to introduce Usage Based Billing on wholesale Internet services.

The CRTCs decision directly affects the High-Speed Internet service provided to you by Primus Canada and, unfortunately, the newly associated costs to Primus make the unlimited Internet service you are now enjoying no longer financially viable. This serves as 30 days notice that beginning February 1, 2011 there will be changes to your Internet service provided by Primus.

As a result, the following changes will apply commencing your February invoice:
* Your existing High Speed Internet plan will now have 25GB of monthly usage included
* For the minority of customers who exceed this amount, additional usage up to 300GB will be charged at $2.00/GB to a maximum of $60.00/month. Usage in excess of 300GB per month will be charged an additional $1.10/GB
* Additional Usage Plans can be purchased starting at $5/month for an additional 40GB

Your Primus High Speed Internet service usage during the month of November 2010 was:
31.03 GB

You can check your monthly Internet usage and buy additional usage, by visiting: »ecare.primustel.ca/

Also commencing with your next bill in February, the monthly rate of your Primus Triple Value Bundle plan will increase by $5.00 to help cover rising ongoing support costs. This new rate remains below our regular in-market pricing of $74.95 per month. Rest assured that even with this change, Primus still provides you with significant savings vs. the competition.

For more information, please visit www.primus.ca/on/ubb or call 1 888-280-5001.
Thank you for your understanding and for choosing Primus.

Sincerely,
Primus Canada"

They lost me as a customer as of this e-mail. As for TV - I would never purchase any of it - have it free with 1$ rabbit ears and 10$ PC gizmo.

That's as bad from government as telling to its citizens "Go f... yourself"

All they care about now is raping money from its citizens in taxes and government-corporate deals.

The country fell into subtle fascism.

Fascism - a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

peterborough
toronto
ottawa

go on add some....and list the mayor and his emails