CANADIANS: The CRTC has just approved METERED INTERNET BILLING (UBB)

[taboga100]

The CRTC has approved METERED BILLING for all Canadian internet service providers. Also known as "UBB", this will put a "meter" on your internet, and you will now be charged PER BYTE for Email, web surfing, Windows updates, video games, and any other online activity!

The CEO of Teksavvy ISP has stated:
"UBB is pure profit. IP transport of internet data is somewhere between $3 and $10/Mbps for companies like ours.... So doing basic math we're talking of $3-$10 per 300GB of data... So 1 to 3 pennies per gig of downloading on the Internet transit side."

ISPs tell customers that their limits are "generous" and overstate the cost of bandwidth. In fact, bandwidth costs an ISP ONE CENT per GB, but ISPs are charging $2-$4 PER GB! Some Canadian ISPs have also quietly reduced their caps from 30% to 75%!

Canadian ISPs are using UBB as an excuse to control access to their TV competitors, ie: Netflix/Hulu. It is clearly a conflict of interest to allow a TV Broadcaster who is also an ISP, to limit our access to their competition.

With these massive new overage fees, once you are over your recently lowered "usage cap", every HD Netflix movie will cost you an extra $4 to $10!

Netflix CEO calls our ISPs "ridiculous":
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/netflix-charging-by-the-gigabyte-is-ridiculous.ars

Here is what you can do to help:
http://www.antiubb.com/what-can-i-do/
http://www.digitalhome.ca/2011/01/usage-based-internet-billing-what-can-you-do/

Fax your complaint to the CRTC: 1-819-994-0218
Fax your complaint to Tony Clement: 1-613-992-0302

If you want to contact your local MP, you can find out who your local representative is here:
http://howdtheyvote.ca/findmember.php

Visit Open Media's facebook page, and join thousands of Canadians working together to put an end to metered billing:
http://www.facebook.com/openmedia.ca

Please sign the petition! Forward it to your friends, family, and co-workers. We need to act on this, or every single Windows update, web page, and email will cost you money.
http://openmedia.ca/meter
80,000 signatures and growing at an incredible rate.

[anon]

Every time I read one of these articles I'm glad my connection doesn't have any bandwidth caps, even if it's not that fast. They aren't a new practice as the first paragraph of your post would hint at, though.

Anyway, to all affected users, say "fuck you" to the extra cap and do whatever's within our reach to prevent it from being implemented. First it's this, tomorrow they'll want to do something worse (http://www.anorak.co.uk/forums/topic.php?id=1458).

[taboga100]

Hi anon-sbi,

Actually, the hard caps, and implementation at indie ISPs are indeed new. The CRTC just passed its final decision regarding this issue a couple of days ago. That's why there is a massive public outcry. At openmedia.ca, they received 15,000 signatures on the same day as the CRTC released its final approval.

What you are referring to is probably the "soft caps" - They have had soft caps for years, but didn't charge for overages. Now, there will be full UBB implementation by March of this year.

Thanks for the reply!

[anon]

What you are referring to is probably the "soft caps" - They have had soft caps for years, but didn't charge for overages. Now, there will be full UBB implementation by March of this year.

Oh, I see. I didn't know it was like that. :)

[tesco]

For the average user their price will likely not change, for a user like me internet costs are likely going to go through the roof, seeing as I already go over my cap on a monthly basis. :(

[tesco]

Every time I read one of these articles I'm glad my connection doesn't have any bandwidth caps, even if it's not that fast.
I have 10mbps and a 95gb cap.
I'd gladly give up 7 of those mbps for a double size cap. :(
In fact, the only reason I upgraded from 3mbps to 10mbps was for the increased cap size.

The ISP just gets worse every year, the plan that I am under now offers 15mbps, but with a 60gb cap size. No thanks I said, I'll keep my 95gb cap.

And tekksavvy doesn't have cable in my area, there's no way I'm going DSL. :sick:

[taboga100]

We can all say goodbye to Netflix Canada within the year, if we don't put a stop to metered billing.
http://business.financialpost.com/2011/01/27/crtc-petitioned-to-stop-usage-based-billing-as-netflix-questions-its-canadian-future/

Do what you can to spread the word!
http://www.facebook.com/openmedia.ca

[Cabalo]

Geographically speaking, Canada is too huge to ever have competitive ISPs, I'm afraid. Dense residential zones are what drops the prices, so any nationwide ISP will face lots of challenges to become competitive.

[taboga100]

They are reporting billions in earnings. The geography isn't the issue. Greed is. Even the NDP party has stated it's all about greed, as have dozens of concerned media groups, businesses, and the City of Vancouver.

[taboga100]

This is from the most recent Netflix shareholders report:

"An independent negative issue for Netflix and other Internet video providers would be a move by wired ISPs to shift consumers to pay-per-gigabyte models instead of the current unlimited-up-to-a-large-cap approach. We hope this doesn’t happen, and will do what we can to promote the unlimited-up-to-a-large-cap model. Wired ISPs have large fixed costs of building and maintaining their last mile network of residential cable and fiber. The ISPs’ costs, however, to deliver a marginal gigabyte, which is about an hour of viewing, from one of our regional interchange points over their last mile wired network to the consumer is less than a penny, and falling, so there is no reason that pay-per-gigabyte is economically necessary. Moreover, at $1 per gigabyte over wired networks, it would be grossly overpriced."

Many of the ISPs are charging $2-$3 per GB.

[tesco]

Geographically speaking, Canada is too huge to ever have competitive ISPs, I'm afraid. Dense residential zones are what drops the prices, so any nationwide ISP will face lots of challenges to become competitive.
But there are dense areas, such as the GTA (greater toronto area), ottawa, montreal, vancouver, etc.
There's no reason these areas couldn't have different services available than the non-dense (majority of canada) areas.

It's all about greed and a lack of competition. Here we only have two options, bell (owns all phone lines) and rogers (owns all cable lines). When one decreases caps, the other follows suit. There's just no competition other than those two so the end user gets shafted.

[becomehokage]

I told you ,canada sucks!

[chalice]

You'll all be fine when Gandalf comes back.

He's got a big stick.

[Speedo]

Do as your told Canansada.

[MagicNakor]

The CRTC now gets the option of reversing its decision or having the Tories overturn it. I'm fairly certain it's election manoeuvring on Harper's part, but...

:shuriken:

[IdolEyes787]

The CRTC now gets the option of reversing its decision or having the Tories overturn it. I'm fairly certain it's election manoeuvring on Harper's part, but...

:shuriken:

Yeah the statement has been issued . Doesn't really effect me one way or the other I think since they ( Cogeco) have merrily been charging me $1.50 for every Gb I've gone over my minuscule 60Gb cap (15/1 mbps ) for quite some time now.
Btw Canada has the highest user rates of any developed country which , seeing as vast portions aren't even yet high speed accessible ( so much for geography being a current factor ) is pretty ridiculous.
Like Tesco I'd trade the modest speed for a few more GBs as the speed is essentially largely going to waste anyway.