This week, experts at the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) – the body that oversees Canada’s .ca domain – released their 2014 Factbook, which chronicles Canada’s advancement on Internet issues over the past year. The Factbook investigates how well-positioned Canadians are in the areas of access, cost, and usage. The report shows Canada continues to slip further behind our global counterparts. For example, Canada has crashed from 2nd place in 2001 on broadband penetration amongst industrialized nations to 16th place in 2014.

Rogers hit this B.C. senior with a whopping $800 bill for Internet she never even used. It seems not a week goes by without another story of Big Telecom price-gouging. Tell us yours in the comments below. Article from CBC News A senior citizen in Chilliwack, B.C., is angry about an $800 wireless internet access bill from Rogers — a bill she claims she's not responsible for. Darlene Davies, 65, usually pays $60 a month for her Rogers internet service, which she accesses with an unsecured Rocket hub Wi-Fi hotspot access point. When she received a bill for more than $600 instead, she was stunned. Rogers customer service told her the charges stemmed from data used to download movies, stream TV shows and play online games. But Davies says she doesn't even know how to do any of those things.

Big Telecom is running scared of cord-cutters - and is doing what it takes to block them from watching their favourite shows online. It looks like Rogers is even planning to block Canadians from watching Hockey Night online. They want to trap Canadians in expensive and outdated service plans - and they’re using their power and control to do so. It’s not too late to push back by telling decision-makers at the CRTC to put Canadians first when it comes to our digital future. Have you cut the cord from your television service recently - or are you considering it? If so, you’ve probably noticed it’s getting more difficult to watch the content you want online. The reason is clear - Big Telecom is terrified of cord-cutters and is determined to do what it takes to trap Canadians in their expensive TV service plans.

Several months ago, we let you know that Manitoba resident and OpenMedia community member Ben Klass had filed a complaint with Canada’s telecom policymaker, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Ben’s complaint claimed that telecom giant Bell was unfairly stifling certain types of mobile content over their wireless networks to give their own content a speed advantage over content not owned by Bell.

It looks like the Big Three telecom giants are fighting hard to maintain their stranglehold over our wireless market, and over Canadians’ wallets. The Big Three have been on the back foot since pressure from tens of thousands of Canadians won positive new customer protection rules last year, along with a clear government commitment to increase choice and lower prices. Now Big Telecom is pushing back. They’re sitting on huge piles of cash after years of price-gouging Canadians with some of the highest prices in the industrialized world. It seems they’ve been using that money to hire expensive Ottawa lobbyists to pressure the government.

"Outright theft." That's what Canadians are calling this latest alleged attempt by Big Telecom to price-gouge us. Speak out against Big Telecom price-gouging at https://openmedia.ca/deadweight Article by Daniel Tencer for the Huffington Post Canada Rogers Communications is denying online accusations that it charges its internet customers for internal traffic on their routers, even if that traffic doesn’t use the Rogers network.