OpenMedia.ca: CRTC’s Half-Measure Fails to Safeguard the Future of the Internet

Decision on Usage-Based Billing will Have Consumers Paying New Internet Fees

January 25, 2011 – OpenMedia.ca, the group behind the 41,000-strong petition to stop Internet metering, is disappointed by the decision made today by Canada’s media regulator.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has taken a small a step in the right direction, which OpenMedia.ca acknowledges, but the public engagement organization also believes that the Commission has failed to safeguard consumer choice and affordable access to the Internet.

This decision is a renewal of a ruling to allow large incumbent Internet service providers (ISPs) to force usage-based billing (overage fees) onto their independent competitors and Canadians writ large. This means that the likes of Bell, Rogers, and Shaw have been given the green light to determine how we pay for Internet. If this decision goes unchecked, broadband is about to cost much more for Canadians.

Likely in response to popular opposition to Internet metering, the CRTC has decided to alleviate, albeit only to an acute degree, the burden this pricing regime will have on independent ISPs, whose competition serves as a check on Big Telecom. Indie ISPs will get a 15% discount from incumbents’ rates – just barely enough to allow the indie ISPs to differentiate their pricing structures.

The Commission seems to have acknowledged the tens of thousands of Canadians who signed the petition at http://www.StopTheMeter.ca, created videos, and wrote letters to MPs other officials asking that Big Telecom be prevented from gouging consumers and controlling the Internet market, but it has not gone far enough.

“The CRTC has once again left the wolves in charge of the henhouse,” said Steve Anderson, OpenMedia.ca’s national coordinator. “Canadians have come out in unprecedented numbers and demanded an affordable Internet, and while there is evidence that this has moved the CRTC, they have not gone nearly far enough "

Anderson continued: "It is deeply disappointing that the Commission has decided to give a few companies a free hand to engage in economic discrimination and crush innovation. Now is the moment for forward-looking, visionary policymaking, not half-measures and convoluted compromises with the companies trying to kill the open Internet. This decision is a step in the right direction, but it is clear to me that Canadians are going to have to continue to speak out on this issue."

OpenMedia.ca is now shifting gears, and encouraging citizens to sign the petition to back up the next phase of the campaign. Canadians are encouraged to sign the Stop The Meter petition and continue to raise awareness among family and friends. Now more than ever, citizens need to speak out on this issue.

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Contact
Lindsey Pinto
Communications Manager, OpenMedia.ca
778-238-7710
[email protected]

About OpenMedia.ca
OpenMedia.ca is a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization working to advance and support an open and innovative communications system in Canada. Our primary goal is to increase public awareness and informed participation in Canadian media, cultural, information, and telecommunication policy formation.

About Stop The Meter
In October, Canadians were outraged by the news that the CRTC had decided to allow Bell and other big Internet service providers (ISPs) to impose new fees on independent ISPs – usage-based billing. Now every Internet user in Canada is likely to feel the sting of a less affordable Internet, and a less competitive Internet service market. Recognizing the importance of this issue, OpenMedia.ca launched the Stop The Meter campaign.

Since its inception, this multi-platform petition, based at http://www.StopTheMeter.ca and in French at http://openmedia.ca/compteur, become a record breaker and a game changer. Over 35,000 names have now been added to the website, Facebook, Twitter, and in print.

Past Press Releases about Internet Metering
See: http://openmedia.ca/press

Independent Videos on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve4bQO3S9X8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3YadNWarV0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSxnKNedcqc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY8bmsfdd8c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3n466POrIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5Sk3zKg48U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjT-9kbUm3g

Open Letters
http://openmedia.ca/blog/open-letter-concerning-not-so-open-internet
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25307752-An-Open-Letter-Concerning-a-No...

Forums
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ezp99/iam_the_national_coordinator...
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/canbroadband

Social Media
http://www.facebook.com/openmedia.ca
http://act.ly/2kw