Canadian Government reverses CRTC decision, and saves the internet

[Torrasque]

As you all may have heard in the last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has been moving to make all internets in Canada, run on a useage-based billing system.
And as you all may have thought, that kind of thing would just be really really stupid; I mean, charging people based on how much they use the internet? Come on, the internet is the last free place anyone can go to, and having to pay MORE to get access to unlimited knowledge is just lame.

Thankfully, the Canadian government has stepped in, and is dropping the hammer on the CRTC!

[link]http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Harper+Conservatives+quash+CRTC+decision+killing+unlimited+Internet/4214166/story.html[/link]
The above article states that unless the CRTC reverses their actions themselves, the Canadian government will do it for them.

Thank you Mr. Stephen Harper.
Thank you =)

In other news:

Spoiler

 

[lazy_eight]

Wow, the government shouldn't have to protect us from the CRTC. Yet, this is not the first time it's happened, either.

 

[Anarchemitis]

They're not dropping the hammer, they're threatening to drop the hammer if they don't fix it themselves right-quick.
A Representative also has to explain themselves before an Investigation Committee from the House of Commons tomorrow morning.

 

[KiKiweaky]

Oh thats good then, it could have caught on and then we'd all be doomed :s

 

[Archangel768]

Don't move to Australia then. We pay $70 a month for 50gb of usage. Both upload and download included in that. We used to pay up until a few months ago $90 for 25gb per month. Not only do we pay for that, our speed is really slow compared to other developed countries. Sounds like you have great internet over there.

 

[Torrasque]

They're not dropping the hammer, they're threatening to drop the hammer if they don't fix it themselves right-quick.
A Representative also has to explain themselves before an Investigation Committee from the House of Commons tomorrow morning.

Representative: "As you can see, our research shows that-"
Committee member: "-you are a bunch of money grubbing douchebags?"
Representative: "well..... you see..... yeah =/"

I'm glad teh government solved this problem for us.
I don't really feel like rioting atm.

 

[jesskit]

why cant we have this in aus!!!

 

[Batfred]

Nice to see that consumer power and petitions do actually work. Well done Canadians who signed up to complain!

 

[Bon_Clay]

Don't move to Australia then. We pay $70 a month for 50gb of usage. Both upload and download included in that. We used to pay up until a few months ago $90 for 25gb per month. Not only do we pay for that, our speed is really slow compared to other developed countries. Sounds like you have great internet over there.

The reason we won't stand for it is because we've already experienced not being overcharged to that degree for a while, so we're not about to start now. As technology improves internet should only get cheaper, as far as I know there hasn't been a god damn apocalypse so I'm not going to pretend that its somehow more expensive for data to run through wires now. Especially with fiber optics coming into play, there's no reason for UBB.

If there's an upside to this whole situation, I hope its that more Canadians like myself learn from this that there are smaller internet provider companies offering astronomically better service. Bell and Rogers can go to hell.

 

[TheComedown]

Don't move to Australia then. We pay $70 a month for 50gb of usage. Both upload and download included in that. We used to pay up until a few months ago $90 for 25gb per month. Not only do we pay for that, our speed is really slow compared to other developed countries. Sounds like you have great internet over there.

Depending where you live and what provider you have, we just upgraded from a 1.5 mb line to an 8mb line from a 30gb limit to a 200gb limit for pretty much the exact same price (once discounts added up)

All this fuss over losing unlimited internet seems really strange to me, cause you can get it here, but you pay through the roof for it, over there and such its taken for granted. Man some old backwards fucks run this place.

 

[DanDeFool]

Yay for Canada!

Here's hoping America's government doesn't fuck everything up when inevitably faced with the same decision.

 

[chinangel]

yeah this is one of the few things our government has done right. it's largely a bowl of fail.

 

[clipse15]

Ok that's nice and all but are they planning on doing anything about the current internet caps that the big providers have now?

 

[Smooth Operator]

Wow, a decent government... there are still those out there?

I might just move to Canada on this basis

 

[Benjamin Grin]

What do you need more than 95gb of internet for a month? Like, reasonably? How many legal undertakings do you need more than 95gb of internet for?

Five people live in my house. All of us are students. We pay 55 quid for a 60gb limit. Four of us play World of Warcraft. Even when, in one month, three members of the household decided to download the WoW client we have never gone over our information budget.

Austrailia has it bad. You guys? What the hell are you complaining about?

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Don't move to Australia then. We pay $70 a month for 50gb of usage. Both upload and download included in that. We used to pay up until a few months ago $90 for 25gb per month. Not only do we pay for that, our speed is really slow compared to other developed countries.

What? Several years ago I was paying $50/mth for 40/40/40 (down-peak/down-off peak/up) on 1.5Mbps ADSL... then a few years after that I was paying $80/mth for 60/60/60 on ADSL2+. Now I'm paying $100/mth for 200Gb all up on 30Mbps cable. Internet is Australia is bad but it's not as bad as you say it is.

 

[Grimrider6]

Austrailia has it bad. You guys? What the hell are you complaining about?

We have it awesome. We intend to keep it that way, thank you.

 

[clipse15]

Ok that's nice and all but are they planning on doing anything about the current internet caps that the big providers have now?

Yes, they are letting you go with another smaller company if you want. Free market and all...

Yes I am well aware that I could switch to a smaller company however since all my services are currently with Rogers I get a discount that I would rather not lose

 

[Anarchemitis]

I don't really feel like rioting atm.

You would riot over your monthly bills?