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.

Cable companies (in the U.S.) finally admit that usage limits are not about congestion as they had insisted for years, and as many companies continue to insist. With your help we’ve managed to save independent options, but we still face the challenge of eliminating price-gouging limits on our phone and Internet use in Canada. If you haven’t yet, send decision makers a clear message that we won't tolerate being gouged by big telecom companies: http://StoptheMeter.ca/ Article by Karl Bode for DSL Reports:

If you had the chance – what would you say to the heads of Canada’s Big Telecom giants? It’s a tiring process trying to talk with someone – anyone – from within Big Telecom who seems to empathize with or understand Canadians. We’ve been a conduit for citizen concerns from the beginning with our StopTheMeter.ca campaign; and we’re still continuing on today with our call for Canadians to reshape our wireless market by sharing their CellPhoneHorrorStory.ca. We’ve been reading your horror stories and we know that you’re angry. We need new rules that apply to all Big Telecom companies equally – rules that are upheld and followed, instead of avoided. What should these rules be? Don’t just tell us, tell Telus.

A CRTC decision came down on Friday for more transparency to how Big Telecom assigns wholesale rates and pricing. This is another sign of progress for the +500,000 Canadian citizens who spoke out through StopTheMeter.ca. Use our online tool at OpenMedia.ca/Switch to find independent providers in your area and read more about the CRTC transparency decision.

Professor Michael Geist talks about how Canadians are taking back the CRTC and our communications system. For more on the historic StopTheMeter.ca UBB campaign click here. Join OpenMedia.ca at OpenMedia.ca/allies. To see the full interview, click here.