So it looks like usage-based billing (aka UBB) is going to be removed from the scene – now that the Conservative government has decided the CRTC’s decision to approve UBB was a mistake.
Now what?
The nut of it is UBB is just a symptom of larger problems within Canada’s $4.5-billion broadband market, which has been allowed to operate with little regulatory oversight. This has created the following landscape:
- An oligopolistic market dominated by the cable and telephone companies. In other words, there’s no or little competition in all markets.
- Prices that rank among the highest in the world
- Access that while improving are far from world-class.
- Service providers that can do and charge what they want.
Addressing the UBB problem is like putting a finger in a leak in the dyke. It will solve one issue but it’s just a stop-gap solution to a bigger problem. In a spirited e-mail I received from Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, he suggested that; “We must build a digital strategy for Canada that embraces the energy, entrepreneurial spirit, and innovative creativity of consumers, businesses and digital influencers like you.”
Putting aside the political posturing, Ignatieff makes a great point: Canada desperately needs a digital strategy, which is a different approach from the hands-off approach the federal government has taken for the past decade.
This does not suggest the federal government take a pro-active approach to the Internet but Canada needs a new master plan that recognizes the Internet has gone from an interesting new medium to an essential part of Canada’s economic, innovation, cultural and content future.
It’s no longer good enough to let market forces rule the day because what you get is self-interest ruling the day even if that means an Internet landscape with no structure or long-term vision. We need more competition so innovation and competition thrives. Ministry of Industry Tony Clement has raised the “more competitive” issue himself but let’s see if he’s willing to walk the walk.
If the UBB issue has done anything positive, it’s finally put broadband into the spotlight. For far too long, Canadian consumers have just paid the piper; now there’s a window to take a good, hard look at an industry that has had its own way for too long.
Actually, I think working towards stopping Net Neutrality in Canada was the finger in the dam that you mentioned. Now we have UBB trying to create a gateway for a new version of Net Neutrality. Next? Who knows… It won’t be good.
I am definitely glad to see broadband getting more attention, but the public aren’t educated enough on the subject or even interested enough to really understand the issues, and as such, they are not only creating a lot of noise (easily apparent in the questions the government officials asked yesterday in the hearing) but they are liable to be easily swayed by small efforts to placate them.
The 60 day delay Bell asked for in implementing UBB isn’t a victory. I am sure Bell and others think that in the two months, people will forget about UBB and move on, leaving the people with the loudest voices without the energy to continue, and spreading out the effect so that mainstream media and ground level consumers won’t notice the outcries.
I watched the CPAC discussion online, something I wouldn’t have done if I was worried I was close to my bandwidth cap. And in watching it, I was horrified. Half of the government officials appeared to only have researched UBB the morning before. The other half had great questions but not enough time to follow them up, letting the CRTC representatives have the last word, and usually the wrong word on a topic that could have used more discussion.
The CRTC rep couldn’t even get GB, MB, and GHz correct through his answers. He didn’t understand that Skype is a program that allows for video communication. He kept talking in circles, and was pretty much unchallenged, despite some great questions that definitely hit him in an emotional way.
I am not very hopeful that the situation is going to improve, but I constantly think not only of myself, but someday of my children. The CRTC rep said that we don’t live in an Internet backwater, but I definitely see a future where that is without a doubt the situation we will find ourselves in over the next ten to twenty years unless something can be done today.
The worst part is that there are so many great models out there created by other countries, and if you read the /r/canada on Reddit, you’ll see some great ideas on how to improve the situation. All it takes is some foresight from the government and enough people to speak up and be heard.
The CRTC rep waved aside the over 300,000 people that have signed the online petition as an inconsequential group stating that he once received 700,000 petition signatures for a cable ruling in one day. How can we, as a nation, prove what we want if nearly 1 in 100 Canadians isn’t enough to insight major change?
The UBB isn’t defeated. It is up for renewal. Until I hear otherwise, I will continue to err on the side of caution and continue to speak up and promote the speech of others in hopes of helping make sure the world understands the potential issues of UBB and its sibling laws, rulings and amendments.
Not renewal, review. Wish you had the ability to edit on your WordPress install..lol.
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My DSL provider is going ahead with new plans that eliminate by unlimited package despite the government telling the CRTC to go back to the drawing board.
I actually can accept the idea of getting a finite amount of bandwidth for a finite amount of money. It’s the pricing per GB that’s infuriating.
And the CRTC seems clueless to the fact that this is about imposing an incumbent’s business model on independents, who are fine with the power users such as myself because I’m a minority and most of their users don’t use a lot of bandwidth – it balances out. Wasn’t the whole point of making Bell sell bandwidth to incumbents at wholesale to create competition?
I actually took a a speed reduction to go with an independent DSL provider because I was fed with Rogers’ billing mistakes and rude, incompetent CSRs, and I will stick with my DSL provider because of its outstanding customer service and simply because they are not Rogers or Bell.
UBB? Oh, it stands for Unbelievable Business Baloney « Talesfromthelou's Blog
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Towards Progressive Internet Policy in Canada | Technology, Thoughts, and Trinkets
[...] how wholesale ISPs were charged for bandwidth volume. Such demands were exacerbated by proposals to charge consumers vastly more for bandwidth usage and what seemed to be anti-competitive efforts to squeeze companies who were [...]