Stop Internet Metering to Become Largest Online Action in Canadian History Internet, decision

ACC-HE

http://openmedia.ca/news/160000-strong-petition-stop-internet-metering-become-largest-online-action-canadian-history

Dear Internet Supporters,

Last week the CRTC made a decision that, while disappointing, was nevertheless a small a step in the right direction. It rolled back 15% of the usage fee profits big telecom wanted to extract from indie ISPs. This is a big deal, and it shows that we’re turning the tides on this issue.

But the decision does leave Internet metering in place. The unnecessary fees charged to Canadians for Internet “overuse” will stifle innovation, ground-up entrepreneurialism, and social progress.

You responded to the CRTC’s weak-kneed decision by helping the Stop The Meter petition reach unprecedented numbers – 160,000+ signatures!

To stop new punitive fees from being imposed on us we need to get the Government to overturn the CRTC’s decision. Now that the NDP has come out against metering, the next step is the get the Liberals to adopt our position. Lets send them a message by reaching an historic 200,000 signatures:

Email the link: http://stopthemeter.ca

Share it on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/45nmvcv

Tweet it: http://tinyurl.com/4nxd52y

We think the Liberals are on the verge of coming out with a position on Internet metering and there can be little doubt that they’re facing a barrage telecom lobbyists at the moment. In response, we’ve made it so each petition signature triggers an email message to Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Digital Critic Pablo Rodriguez. The best way to stop the meter is to get as many petition signatures as possible today.

Email the link: http://stopthemeter.ca

Share it on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/45nmvcv

Tweet it: http://tinyurl.com/4nxd52y/

We’ve definitely turned some heads in Ottawa already. Imagine what could happen if all 160,000 of us reach out as far as we can today.

You can find other resources to spread the word here:
http://openmedia.ca/meter/resources

For the Internet,

Steve and the OpenMedia.ca team

saotome

My co-worker pointed out that this is an expected move by those ISPs.

Shaw, Bell and Rogers has acquired TV and sports cable network companies in recent years. That means they aren't the monopoly operating in the ISP industry but also TV now. They are putting caps on internet usage because they want to protect their investments and make their customers more difficult to switch to Netflix and other online media providers.

He said that their next move would be upgrading the upstream and downstream speed which makes people even easier to go over the limit without knowing. Just wait and see.

news

there is always a cap on the usage unless u r using the high end pkgs...its just a lot of ppl ignoring them...if i run an isp..i would hv considered the same thing...there is no free lunch

saotome

Having a cap is absolutely fine with me. Just that it has to be placed at a reasonable level. Yes ISPs should go after the 10% user who abuse the network by hogging more than 80% of the traffic. However they should NOT lower the bar just because they want to increase revenue from the surcharge/penalty.

pkphilip

This UBB is more serious than many have thought. Shaw and Telus tell you that the cap will not affect most people but they are wrong. Yes, they don't affect those who only use the web for surfing/email. This is not 1990 on dial-up! We have a whole lot more on the internet.

I've done some monitoring in the past few days and these are the usage (appox):

- Day 1: Browse the web, facebook, email, about 5 youtube video clips = 300MB down, 10MB up.
- Day 2: Download a few Engligh and Chinese TV @ 200MB a pop = 2GB
- Day 3: Streaming and watching a few movies from Netflix on iPhone = 500-600MB
- Day 4: Streaming and watching 1 Netflix movie in HD = 3GB/hour

There, you get a very good idea on how much 1 device will use on your internet connection. It's so easy to rack up 10GB in a couple day. If you have a few computers, smartphones - your current 60GB limit Shaw just simply won't do it.

Bandwidth is cheap, and the costs of deploying newer equipements are not an excuse to increase price as the newer equipements simply last longer and run faster.

Since the UBB is set out by CRTC, all ISP will have to follow. My discounts from Shaw ends in May and I may look elsewhere for internet access if nothing could be done in the next few months to address this.

Time to say goodbye to AppleTV, Netflix, and all other streaming online contents and all internet telephony (skype, iTalkBB.. etc) and stick with your old cable company and enjoy thier crappy and over-priced offering.

Philip

Quest

In economic terms: this is called Oligopoly.

Unless the market opens to more competition on the national level ISPs/telco service providers, otherwise: you may never see the dropping of prices, or improvements in terms of service, or both.

We are stuck with what we have here. Protesting may help but doesn't serve the purpose all too well.

Q.

pkphilip

Usually online petition doesn't do anything, but this time around it actually does something. The poll is now 190K and going.

Philip

Lik

Well, Harper has already ordered a review of the policy, so at least there is some encouraging sign.

-Lik

Mashimaro

Only inexperienced or general web users will agree on this policy. Just wait until they see how much the bandwidth that today webpage uses should make them reconsider their decision.
 

pkphilip

Harper: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/n ... ute/article1890567/

I actually spent tonight going over many documents and the problems of this UBB is actually quite complicated. It started off when Bell wants to impose a fixed price (retail - 15%) to smaller ISP who wholesale Bell's service as their own. Smaller ISPs were popular because they have higher-caps and better service. The CRTC ruling basically will increase the operating costs to the smaller ISPs. This is obviously anti-competitive. In order to keep the businss profitable, caps must be lowered and charged for any overage.

The average operating cost per GB is estimate about $0.01 to 0.1, so if Shaw is charging $2/GB extra, you can do the math.

I think one way around this is to have a flex-time usage, where you don't get caps during off-peak. That way, I get to choose when I want to do my download.

Philip