Poll: The CRTC deals a big blow to competitive pricing for broadband internet in Canada

[leburn]

If you live in Canada and happen to have a DSL service that isn't Bell (ie Teksavvy) then you have no doubt heard of the outrageous decision by the CRTC to effectively kill off competition from small ISPs by allowing Bell to charge small ISPs by usage.

As Canadians, we must not stand for this. We want to be able to choose who we support. What Bell is doing will make all small ISPs mini-Bells, essentially resellers since there will be no way to differentiate themeselves from Bell who will be able to match or exceed their competitors pricing while the small ISPs like Teksavvy will be binded by the set fees.

I suggest contacting the CRTC and your MPs to let them know your disgust for such practice and maybe, just maybe Canada won't be the laughing stock when it comes to broadband internet when compared to the US, Japan and the UK.

News Story courtesy of CBCNews.ca:
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/08/12/bell-crtc-internet-usage.html

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has approved a request by Bell Canada to implement usage-based billing for its wholesale internet customers.

The decision, made on an interim basis, could result in lower download limits for customers of smaller companies such as Teksavvy and Acanac that rent portions of Bell's network to provide their own internet services.

Smaller ISPs, which typically allow customers to download hundreds of gigabytes a month, may be forced to lower their limits to Bell levels. Bell's most popular plan allows customers to download 50 gigabytes a month.

The CRTC on Wednesday also approved a request from Bell that will allow the company to charge small ISPs 75 cents for every gigabyte over 300 that their customers use.

Smaller ISPs had fought the requests and said if granted, their services would become indistinguishable from Bell's. The CRTC last year also allowed Bell to extend its traffic management practices, where certain uses of the internet such as peer-to-peer file-sharing are slowed or "throttled," to smaller ISPs.

Independent companies are therefore required to throttle their own customers as well.

Although the CRTC ruled in favour of Bell during the throttling dispute, it also launched an inquiry into the larger issue of net neutrality, or how much control internet providers should have over the connections they provide to customers. The regulator is expected to make a ruling on net neutrality by the end of the year.

 

[theownerer]

So you get to download less with smaller companies? Im not sure i get what this means but im already with bell so i guess it wont change anything unless bell increases their prices (which they might if it does kill the companies) so ya fuck Bell.

 

[leburn]

So you get to download less with smaller companies? Im not sure i get what this means but im already with bell so i guess it wont change anything unless bell increases their prices (which they might if it does kill the companies) so ya fuck Bell.

What this means is that customers who went with other ISPs like Teksavvy, where I pay $42 for unlimited, Bell wants to charge them (Teksavvy, Acanac, etc) overage fees which means that Teksavvy and Bell customers will end up paying the same price.

The draw that these small ISPs have is that they can offer unlimited bandwidth, unlike Bell (who's greed disallows it) who caps it's users at 60GB a month (I average around 200-300GB between the family).

Basically, Bell wants to remove the only thing that makes these small ISPs attractive: unlimited and cheap therefore killing off the competition. So this effects everyone, even Bell users.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

well then the solution is easier, go with rogers, faster service and more bandwidth and the ability to download more every month

with dsl you have to put with the crappy Bell lines as it is that actually slow down your service cause they haven't upgraded their infrastructure in 50 years or so

 

[Pandalisk]

Wasn't Canada apparently the last bastion of hope? Curing Cancer and riding Horses in the forests?


This shuts them the hell up anyway

"This Just in, Canada Is Just as Fucked as everywhere else"