Due to a push from Bell Canada (BCE), a CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission)-approved motion to apply Usage-Based Billing (UBB) to Gateway Internet Access (GAS) and Third-Party Internet Access (TPIA) based services will take affect March 1st. This bill imposes bandwidth caps of 25GB/month and 60GB/month in Ontario and Quebec respectively, and will be rolling out west shortly thereafter (as soon as July for Shaw in BC and AB). Not only this, but if that cap is met, the ISP will be forced to apply an overage fee of ~$2.00/GB.
Obviously, a large part of the Internet is in uproar over this. Reddit alone has created a significant outcry in the past few days.
George Stroumboulopoulos, a well-known TV and radio personality in Canada, speaks out about the new billing method:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rUsRCyS6PU
An excellent explanation of the situation by CBC:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8-ONolT4BY
Of course, I'm completely against it as well - how could I not be? A section of my own letter to the CRTC:
As a student of Digital Media, my future of providing service in a digital economy depends on myself and others having the ability to download and upload high quality media, such as large video files, photography projects, software builds, etc. A 25 GB/month cap, such as the one that will be implemented in Ontario, will severely limit my ability to do so — on my current Internet connection, downloading 25GB takes a mere four and a half hours (25GB ÷ 1.5MB/s = 16666s ÷ 60 = 277 minutes ÷ 60 = 4.62962962962963 hours). When considering I live with several others under one roof, this cap could be met very easily.
A website has been created aimed at furthering public outcry and action against this new billing method:
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http://www.antiubb.com/
Some of the reasons it lists why this bill will hurt Canada:
1) Internet in Canada is already amongst the most expensive in the world. UBB will make it even more expensive.
A high-speed internet costs between $50 and $60 per month. In the United States, UNLIMITED packages with similar speeds are offered for $29.99. We already pay too much for our internet and we are about to get Internet as it was in 2003.
This is half-true. I live in BC and pay ~$48 for a 15MB down/1MP up service under Shaw — it's good Internet, but it's true that we aren't as advanced as other countries. We don't have true Fiber Optic yet.
2) Usage-Based Billing is a scam because it’s sold at 100x times what it costs to make
According to research, data cost $0.02 per GB to transmit – and that number is getting lower and lower every year as optic fiber gets cheaper.
Bell wants to sell iat $2.00 per GB. This is an absolute scam. Would you agree to pay $700,000 for an entry-level car? Would you pay $35.00 for an apple?
Agreed, plain and simple.
3)Usage-Based Billing will kill Internet TV, cloud computing, High-Definition movie downloads and more.
Folding at home, as offered on the PS3, offer owners the chance to run a program and help science progress by modeling proteins. With UBB, this entire segment will die.
Let’s not even talk about Internet TV. Unsurprisingly, watching television using Bell’s Fibe service DOES NOT COUNT TOWARDS YOUR DOWNLOAD LIMIT, ALTHOUGH IT’S THE EXACT SAME DATA TRAVELLING ON THE SAME LINES! This is a scam, plain and simple.
Bell rents you movie for $4.99 each. Netflix offers thousands of movies for $6.99 per MONTH. This will die as well.
Want to buy a game? You’ll have to buy it in store because a game can easily take 10-12 GB.
Want YouTube? You’ll have to live with a few hours of it per day.
Want to upgrade your program? Check your download limit first.
This is the worst part of the bill. All media-intensive applications of Internet services will be greatly hindered. In my letter to the CRTC I added Skype to the list of potentially-affected services as well; there are many more.
4) The caps proposed are ridiculously low and can be reached in a single day. Many, many canadians already break it.
25GB is an absolutely ridiculous amount. At a 1MB/s, which is a regular high-speed internet, it can be reached in 7 hours.
An obvious point, especially to Internet users such as What.CD members. I know I can reach 25GB down in 4 and a half hours.
You can read further points on the "Why should we oppose UBB?" page.
David Beers of the Globe & Mail makes some excellent points on further reasons for implementation in his article:
So what’s this really about? Bear in mind that Bell Canada and other big telecoms also are invested heavily in an old-fashioned media-delivery model called television. If you now have to pay by the byte to live your version of a rich digital life on the Internet, maybe the hits to your bank account will push you back in front of the television set.
Except that trying to herd Canadians in 2011 back to commercial-laden programs on TV is like trying to drive back the tide. Anyone with children knows they view the television set as a moribund, one-way screen versus the computer’s portal into a realm of interactivity and content on demand.
That’s the future, and everyone knows it. So why aren’t we preserving the level playing field that has made the Internet such a vibrant cultural commons?
This bill will crush Canadian digital innovation and relegate us to the equivalent of a digital backwater. Personally, I am not ready to allow that to happen.
A poll has been made that directs itself to the Canadian Minister of Industry Tony Clement, along with Liberal Digital Critic Pablo Rodriguez, BQ Leader Gilles Duceppe, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, and Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff.
I highly advise all reading this to sign this petition, even if you are not from Canada. Please help us keep our Internet free.
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http://openmedia.ca/meter
If you can, please check out what else you can do here:
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http://www.antiubb.com/what-can-i-do/
Some further articles/resources:
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http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/techsense/archive/2011/01/25/consumer-backlash-over-usage-based-internet-billing-goes-viral.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+canada/iWCa+(Digital+Life)
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...age-caps-draw-ire-of-business/article1887223/
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http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20110128/backlash-grows-over-internet-billing-decision-110128/
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http://business.financialpost.com/2...ing-as-netflix-questions-its-canadian-future/
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http://swo.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/...ing-billing-caps-110127/20110127/?hub=SWOHome
I feel sad.
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