CRTC Decision Rejected: Canada Says No to Usage-Based Billing

CRTC Usage-Based Internet Billing Recommendation Rejected

In a blow to Rogers, Telus, Shaw, and Bell, and a win for Canadian web users, developers and investors, the Canadian government informed the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission) its recommendation that the major ISPs force usage-based billing (UBB) upon third-party ISPs would be rejected. Industry Minister Tony Clement made the announcement on February 2 via Twitter.

The usage-based billing model, which would radically restrict existing download limits and stifle competition within the ISP model, was vehemently opposed by Canadian subscribers.

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Clement then took on some UBB apologists, who for some reason compared Internet usage to telephone usage and electricity delivery.

Note that the major ISPs in Canada have used a UBB model for years, which has funneled a steady stream of subscribers to competitors who lease ISP infrastructure and in turn offer unlimited-download options.

CRTC: Stifling Development and Competition

Aside from chilling new-content and -tool exploration (and, by extention, development within Canada), an ISP-to-ISP UBB model would render Canadian clicks valueless, as even grandma would become familiar with ad-blocking software as a matter of affordability.

Beyond that, though, the CRTC decision was anti-consumer and pro-monopoly: the UBB model was effectively a way for multimedia service providers, particularly Rogers and Bell, which are also telephone, video and television providers, to keep Skype and Netflix away from Canadians. In other words, the big boys were using the CRTC to stifle competition in a space that the CRTC demonstrably does not understand.