As Canadians continue to ‘cut the cord, advocates urge CRTC to end data caps

New information published by the CRTC reveals that 200,000 Canadians ‘cut the cord’ on traditional TV services from 2014 to 2015

July 12, 2016– According to new information published this morning, 200,000 Canadians “cut the cord” on traditional cable, satellite, and IPTV services, continuing a trend that has seen increasing numbers turn to the Internet as their principle source of content.

According to digital rights activists at OpenMedia, the statistics, contained in an annual report by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), reinforce the need to end Internet data caps. Data caps, and associated issues around Net Neutrality and zero-rating, are the topic of an ongoing CRTC consultation. To date, over 30,500 people have endorsed an open letter asking the CRTC to dismantle the data cap regime.

“It’s clear that telecom giants are using these punitive data caps as a way to keep their customers trapped in expensive TV subscriptions,” said Katy Anderson, digital rights specialist with OpenMedia. “While increasing numbers of Canadians are successfully cutting the cord on traditional TV services, many more would like to do so, but are being held back by Big Telecom’s artificially low data caps and punitive overage charges. The CRTC should step in and prohibit these price-gouging tactics.”

The CRTC’s consultation on Net Neutrality and zero-rating represents the best chance in a generation to ban telecom providers from capping customers’ Internet usage. For wired Internet, data caps in most of the industrialized world are unheard of, whereas for wireless Internet data caps elsewhere are far more generous, with unlimited plans easily available. As a recent OpenMedia report revealed, no national mobile provider in Canada offers unlimited data plans.

30,504 Canadians are speaking out to End Data Caps at http://act.openmedia.org/datacaps