Canada = the first to say goodbye to unlimited Internet?

[$5 submissions]

Troubling development if this catches on globally. Kinda makes sense if viewed from the perspective of the ISPs though. Still, it sucks getting used to.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...et-billing.ars

Metered Internet usage (also called "Usage-Based Billing") is coming to Canada, and it's going to cost Internet users. While an advance guard of Canadians are expressing creative outrage at the prospect of having to pay inflated prices for Internet use charged by the gigabyte, the consequences probably haven't set in for most consumers. Now, however, independent Canadian ISPs are publishing their revised data plans, and they aren't pretty.

[Spunky]

I will never be held down by the man!

[Barefootsies]

Interesting development for the Canucks.

[just a punk]

Thanks god I'm not a Canadian!

[georgeyw]

We've never really had *true* unlimited in Australia. Every unlimited plan has had an 'Acceptabel Use Policy' attached to it.

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by Spunky

I will never be held down by the man!

Resist.By.All.Means.Necessary.

[Chosen]

Fuck it...

[DateDoc]

Sucks for them. Sort of like the cable bill bullshit here. $100 for TV. Fuck that! And then there is 4G coming now. Sweet. Faster streaming but wait $50/mo from Verizon gets you 5GB of usage then it is $10 per 1GB of overage.

[Agent 488]

gideon is canadian. i might have to hitch a ride on his time travelling vcr back to 2010 if this goes down.

[MrBottomTooth]

https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1007465

Harper is already backpeddling on this. They got over 200,000 signatures on an e-petition in a matter of days.

This has become an election issue, with both the NDP and Liberals supporting the repeal of this ridiculous law. The conservatives know what they have to do.

[HomerSimpson]

[MediaGuy]

Bah it's bullshit... my plan included 8 or ten gigs bandwidth and when I exceeded that they called me and offered 40 gigs for an extra five bucks - they've had UBB for a few years now and it works...

Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like an over reaction now that I learn more about it...


:D

[cooldude7]

this sucks

[Sausage]

Had that in Australia forever basically. Though they tend to just cut your net off and limit it to a crawl once your paid for usage is up, they used to charge by the megabyte! Some people would be on a $50 a month plan and get a $8000 bill for overage. Was insane.

[Axeman]

Originally Posted by MediaGuy

Bah it's bullshit... my plan included 8 or ten gigs bandwidth and when I exceeded that they called me and offered 40 gigs for an extra five bucks - they've had UBB for a few years now and it works...

Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like an over reaction now that I learn more about it...


:D

You're wrong.

The problem with this is the CRTC is making it acceptable for the incumbent Bell to force their business model and pricing on their wholesale customers. So that forces their competition to have to drop their existing plans of 200gb and unlimited, and now have a cap of 25gb for all of Canada except Quebec, who got special favors and their new cap will be 60gb. Overage will cost you $2 a gb up to $60. Unless you use over 300gb and then its an addition $1 a gb. Keep in mind the cost of delivery per gb is between $0.01-$0.03 a gb.

Forcing their business model on their wholesalers kills all competition in Canada, then we are pooched.

Bell/DSL is currently regulated because the majority of their infrastructure (the last mile) was built by tax payer grants and substitutes from when they were a monopoly. So they have to provide access to independent ISP's to the last mile, but only from the Central Offices, not their own remote stations.

It is near impossible for another start-up to build their own last mile into your home due to the costs of ripping up the streets etc. And with Canada having asinine foreign investor restrictions, good luck.

Let's not pretend this is about bandwidth or congestion, or needing to pay for infrastructure. This is about trying to force Canadians not to use services like Netflix, Hulu, Steam etc as it competes directly with Bell and Rogers own Cable TV services. Their own TV stations, and their video on demand /ppv services. Nothing else.

It's all about to be moot though, as the Conservative government is going to be sending the UBB ruling back to the CRTC to overturn. And if the CRTC fails to do so, gov't sources say Harper and Clements will do it themselves.

[baddog]

Originally Posted by MrBottomTooth

https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1007465

Harper is already backpeddling on this. They got over 200,000 signatures on an e-petition in a matter of days.

This has become an election issue, with both the NDP and Liberals supporting the repeal of this ridiculous law. The conservatives know what they have to do.

What country is small enough that 200k even registers on the radar?

[Axeman]

Minister of Industry Tony Clement tweeted this tonight:

TonyClement_MP Tony Clement
True. CRTC must go back to drawing board RT @RosieBarton is it true you will overturn internet decision if crtc does not back down?

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by DateDoc

Faster streaming but wait $50/mo from Verizon gets you 5GB of usage then it is $10 per 1GB of overage.

If its initially subsidizing them building out their network, it's fine. But if they are just milking you, that's fucked up.

[Paul Markham]

The only way to stop it is Government legislation. So I assume all those anti ths are pro Government intervention.

The company providing the services are private companies, it's entirely up to them what they charge. The customer has 4 options, pay up, reduce their usage, move to another provider if they can find one or go offline.

It's amazing how many want an unregulated Internet and clueless about what that would mean.

[rowan]

Originally Posted by georgeyw

We've never really had *true* unlimited in Australia. Every unlimited plan has had an 'Acceptabel Use Policy' attached to it.

Telstra bigpond business has a truly unlimited ADSL plan, but the catch is that it costs $310 a month. ;)

No, wait, I just looked more closely and the fuckers have added in an AUP clause!!!!! It certainly wasn't there when I contracted in mid 2009.

[Si]

The government is planning to overturn the decision.

This will be gone very soon!

[seeandsee]

how much they wi;ll give to people 200mb

[MrBottomTooth]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

The only way to stop it is Government legislation. So I assume all those anti ths are pro Government intervention.

The company providing the services are private companies, it's entirely up to them what they charge. The customer has 4 options, pay up, reduce their usage, move to another provider if they can find one or go offline.

It's amazing how many want an unregulated Internet and clueless about what that would mean.

You obviously know nothing about our situation with Bell and the CRTC, and nothing about how this affects ALL ISPs in Canada. One company (Bell) is forcing this onto ALL the ISPs in Canada. The reason it was put into place is because of the government (CRTC), so no, the people that are against it are NOT pro government intervention. Do you even know anything about the situation at all or do you just feel like spouting off?

[DamianJ]

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/03...ernet-res.html

Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement has told the press that he will overturn the decision to allow "usage-based billing" with thich the CRTC (Canada's telcoms regulator) gifted the telcoms industry. Canada's heavily concentrated telcoms companies have long used dirty tricks (secret filtering and throttling) to punish customers for using services that compete with their own, such as VoIP and video on demand, and Usage-Based Billing would have raised the cost for using these services sky-high.

[Sid70]

It is so 95 ish Russia.

[PR_Glen]

Originally Posted by baddog

What country is small enough that 200k even registers on the radar?

1% of our total population in a matter of days is a lot of angry voters, you never would have made it as a politician baddog...

[Ravage]

Originally Posted by Axeman

Let's not pretend this is about bandwidth or congestion, or needing to pay for infrastructure. This is about trying to force Canadians not to use services like Netflix, Hulu, Steam etc as it competes directly with Bell and Rogers own Cable TV services. Their own TV stations, and their video on demand /ppv services. Nothing else.

And we have a winner.

[woj]

It's not all bad news, at least now it will no longer make sense to do site rips, p2p share stuff, etc...

[MrBottomTooth]

Originally Posted by PR_Glen

1% of our total population in a matter of days is a lot of angry voters, you never would have made it as a politician baddog...

especially for an online only petition from a single website. The numbers are now over 330,000.

[pornguy]

Its like going back to 1997

[AtlantisCash]

So What's result know? Do you say good bye or not?

[Socks]

Originally Posted by PR_Glen

1% of our total population in a matter of days is a lot of angry voters, you never would have made it as a politician baddog...

It was a rhetorical question. He's just taking another shot at the most important thing that affects his daily life in California - the country a thousand miles away that really doesn't affect him in the slightest.

He just likes picking on the little guys. I believe they refer to these people as: bullies. Unfortunately, his maturity and wisdom haven't developed at the same rate as his clogging arteries, flabby skin and dental decay.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by MrBottomTooth

You obviously know nothing about our situation with Bell and the CRTC, and nothing about how this affects ALL ISPs in Canada. One company (Bell) is forcing this onto ALL the ISPs in Canada. The reason it was put into place is because of the government (CRTC), so no, the people that are against it are NOT pro government intervention. Do you even know anything about the situation at all or do you just feel like spouting off?

So the Government passed a law to force a private company to change it's pricing policy?

Or did they remove a law that stopped companies from instituting their own pricing policy?

Either way what was the "government (CRTC)" intervention?

The only thing that stops big companies in some way, from ruling things the way they want to is LAWS. Without them the normal people would be even more fucked.

[tony286]

Originally Posted by Adult Rental Chris

And we have a winner.

I cut my bill by 90 dollars a month. Just internet now,no cable. With net flix and my laptops. I really dont miss cable tv. They see this as a threat.

[RyuLion]

Originally Posted by Barefootsies

Interesting development for the Canucks.

[facialfreak]

Ottawa to reverse CRTC Internet billing decision

[SmokeyTheBear]

Originally Posted by baddog

What country is small enough that 200k even registers on the radar?

[Socks]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

So the Government passed a law to force a private company to change it's pricing policy?

Or did they remove a law that stopped companies from instituting their own pricing policy?

Either way what was the "government (CRTC)" intervention?

The only thing that stops big companies in some way, from ruling things the way they want to is LAWS. Without them the normal people would be even more fucked.

Paul, my loose understanding of what happened is this. There are companies here that buy and resell Bell's ADSL service, which as mentioned is part and parcel of government funding provided to Bell in years past. Resellers like TekSavvy, Acanac and a few others offer higher download caps and less expensive overages, as well as more consumer friendly options for heavy internet users. They're also popular for normal internet users on price alone.

The way I understand it, because someone like TekSavvy buys thousands of accounts from Bell as a reseller, they're able to pool their cap space together and possibly get a better price on excess bandwidth usage too. They are then able to pass that on. If they have customers who just use e-mail and surf the web on their 200gb cap, leaving 185gb of unused cap, the company can use that excess for their other customers who do want to use it.

Bell lobbied the CRTC to allow them to individually meter each customer, to stop the resellers from being able to take advantage of this situation. As a side result, it also paves the way for all internet companies to charge for bandwidth the same way that cell phones are billed (per minute / per gb).

These new looser regulations would obviously slowly lead to companies milking us even more for something we already pay a lot for, limiting how much we're able to use the internet. This wouldn't just affect the heavy users. How many kids would be told by their parents that the internet is getting shut off at their home because they can't afford another $300 internet bill?

[adamz]

Originally Posted by MrBottomTooth

https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1007465

Harper is already backpeddling on this. They got over 200,000 signatures on an e-petition in a matter of days.

This has become an election issue, with both the NDP and Liberals supporting the repeal of this ridiculous law. The conservatives know what they have to do.

QFT, I've never voted for anything other than the Conservative party, however I will jump on board with whomever makes it their LIFE DUTY to crush this and the CRTC.... even the liberals

[magicmike]

Good to see the gov't doing something the people want for a change. Pretty disturbing how much these companies want to charge Canadians for internet access, 25 gig cap on standard internet from bell is bs.

[Robbie]

Sucks...But at the same time it's dumbfucks like GideonGallery who steals and downloads and uploads content that doesn't belong to him that forces shit like that to happen.

Which is why it's kinda funny to think that gideongallery wants everything to be "free" ...And he doesn't give a damn about hard working people like me who bust ass to create something only to have thieves steal it and give it away while they monetize the traffic it draws them...
And NOW he is going to have to PAY to do that. And he's going to pay some big faceless conglomerate corporation.

There's your consequences gideongallery. Just like ignorant frontmen like Fabian are going to bring down harsh new laws against ALL pornography by their fucking illegit tube sites with full length scenes and millions of teen viewers.

Now gideongallery and his fellow freeloaders are going to hurt everybody else because of his incessant downloading and uploading driving up bandwidth use, and using the goddamn internet as his personal DVR...excuse me, in gideon's case: VCR

[quiet]

Originally Posted by facialfreak

Ottawa to reverse CRTC Internet billing decision

sweet. for once the idiots in Ottawa listen.

[Agent 488]

canada rules. yet again.

[TheSenator]

My sig will eat up your bandwidth...

[_Richard_]

Originally Posted by facialfreak

Ottawa to reverse CRTC Internet billing decision

POWERFIST!

[DamianJ]

Originally Posted by MrBottomTooth

You obviously know nothing about our situation with Bell and the CRTC, and nothing about how this affects ALL ISPs in Canada. One company (Bell) is forcing this onto ALL the ISPs in Canada. The reason it was put into place is because of the government (CRTC), so no, the people that are against it are NOT pro government intervention. Do you even know anything about the situation at all or do you just feel like spouting off?

A complete lack of understanding of a situation has NEVER stopped Markham talking out of his arse, and never will.

[Agent 488]

i just bought myself a nice cozy sweater as a tribute to steven harper.

[TheStout]

Originally Posted by Robbie

Sucks...But at the same time it's dumbfucks like GideonGallery who steals and downloads and uploads content that doesn't belong to him that forces shit like that to happen.

Which is why it's kinda funny to think that gideongallery wants everything to be "free" ...And he doesn't give a damn about hard working people like me who bust ass to create something only to have thieves steal it and give it away while they monetize the traffic it draws them...
And NOW he is going to have to PAY to do that. And he's going to pay some big faceless conglomerate corporation.

There's your consequences gideongallery. Just like ignorant frontmen like Fabian are going to bring down harsh new laws against ALL pornography by their fucking illegit tube sites with full length scenes and millions of teen viewers.

Now gideongallery and his fellow freeloaders are going to hurt everybody else because of his incessant downloading and uploading driving up bandwidth use, and using the goddamn internet as his personal DVR...excuse me, in gideon's case: VCR

Too much fail

[Jman]

Originally Posted by Agent 488

i just bought myself a nice cozy sweater as a tribute to steven harper.

Hahahahaha Good idea I think I'll get one to

[Ross]

Originally Posted by pornopete

200k is a lot of votes, especially when you don't have a two party system.

The petition is at over 350,000 now and it is Ontario ONLY.
That is a lot of people in one Province that will vote elsewhere.