The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in favour of Canadian customers, granting them the right to sue big companies, even if their consumer contracts say otherwise. The ruling follows a class-action lawsuit filed by a B.C. woman, who accused Telus of unfair business practices, although her consumer contract disallowed her from suing the company. The court has recognized the need for customers to be able to protect themselves against large corporations, which are trying to deal with complaints through closed-door arbitrations.

The CRTC has responded to growing concerns about the lack of awareness in Canada regarding the impacts of the transition from analog to digital television. All Canadian broadcasters are now required to participate in a national awareness campaign by airing Public Service Announcements (PSAs). But is that enough?

If ComScore’s report is accurate and Canadians are the most active Internet users in the world, spending on average 43,5 hours online every month, we must question why we are still trying to find the benefits of usage-based billing. There are none.

In 2007, Rogers experimented with substituting ads into unencrypted pages, however, the telecommunications company dropped the idea after it generated a great deal of controversy. Cable Internet service provider Mediacom is now using a similar method to inject their own advertisements into the tops of websites, such as Google.

Lindsey and Steve from OpenMedia.ca are going live tonight on Maple-Radio to discuss Internet metering. Tune in at 8pm EST (5pm PST) at maple-radio.com and find out how YOU can help to save our Internet!

For many years, the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has been trying to reinforce the importance of Canadian Content (CanCon) in media across the country. Every radio station, every TV broadcaster, and even cable companies were obliged to be loyal to content or channels produced in Canada. But with the emergence of Internet, TV and video-on-demand viewers now have much more power over the content than ever before. So the question then becomes: what do we do with the existing CanCon regulations?

Shaw’s announcement to deploy only fibre cable beginning next year comes in the wake of Bell’s planned expansion of its fibre network in Atlantic Canada. Shaw and Bell began their fibre network developing programs in the spring of 2010. Shaw started with two trial networks in Calgary and Vancouver, where Shaw constructed up to 1Gbs networks into new apartment buildings. The trial was meant to be six months long; the decision to focus on deploying only fibre cables can be then understood as a result of this trial.

Though the fight against a metered Internet has not yet come to an end, we at OpenMedia.ca feel it is important to look back and see how far we've come. Usage-based billing may very well be the most widely-discussed Internet issue to surface in Canada. We are confident that the thousands of citizens who have engaged with it will push forward still, and enjoy a victory for the open affordable Internet this year. Vojtěch Sedlák takes us back: May 6, 2010 CRTC’s approval of Bell’s proposal for the introduction of Usage Based Billing (UBB) leads to a wave of opposition from individuals as well as Internet Service Providers. (CRTC decision 2010-255)

Victoria -- British Columbia has reinforced its leading position in the fight against the implementation of Usage Based Billing on small Internet Service Providers. The City of Victoria has passed a motion addressed to CRTC, in which the city urges the committee to reverse the decision regarding the UBB.