Stop The Meter Comes to Fruition: Canadians Will Engage in Hearing In Historic Numbers

July 11, 2011 – Thousands of Canadians will be tuning into the CRTC hearings on usage-based billing today, during which one of Canada's most prolific citizen engagement organizations, OpenMedia.ca, will make the case for affordable and unmetered Internet access.

The Stop The Meter campaign, which began as a simple online petition late last year, is widely considered the biggest online citizens' campaign in Canadian history, involving nearly half-a-million Canadians (roughly 1 in 54 Canadian Internet users). The Stop The Meter campaign has successfully pressured all the major political parties to take a stand against usage-based billing (Internet metering), and ultimately forced the CRTC to launch a hearing beginning today to reconsider its pricing policies.

In addition to their half-a-million supporters, OpenMedia.ca will be backed up by lawyers from the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), and by the work of renowned Internet pricing expert and mathematician Andrew Odlyzko. Backed by evidence-based testimony, research, and expertise, OpenMedia.ca and CIPPIC will give voice to the concerned Canadians who have, in unison, demanded an end to Big Telecom price-gouging.

To keep Canadians engaged and up-to-date, representatives from OpenMedia.ca will live-tweet the hearing. The interactive Twitter stream will be available here: http://openmedia.ca/hearing

The pro-Internet organization will also hold an online LiveChat dialogue in the hearing’s final days, which will be available here: http://openmedia.ca/chat

"Canadians pushed for this hearing because Canada is falling behind our global counterparts on Internet pricing and investment," says OpenMedia.ca Executive Director Steve Anderson. "We’ve let big telecom giants regulate Internet pricing for long enough – now it’s time to listen to Canadians."

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Contact

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

Submissions to the UBB Proceeding

• OpenMedia.ca/CIPPIC’s submission to the CRTC: Reply Comments for UBB Proceeding
• OpenMedia.ca/CIPPIC’s submission to the CRTC: Initial Comments for UBB Proceeding
• OpenMedia.ca/CIPPIC’s submission to the CRTC: Scope of UBB Proceeding (2011-77)

About OpenMedia.ca

OpenMedia.ca is a national, non-partisan, non-profit public engagement 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 telecommunications policy formation.