Affordable Internet Access in Vancouver - CRTC Usage Based Billing Decision

Passed! December 16, 2010 City Services and Budget Committee

Affordable Internet Access in Vancouver - CRTC Usage Based Billing Decision

MOVED by: Councillor Reimer
SECONDED by: Councillor Louie

WHEREAS
1. The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has, in
Telecom Decision CRTC 2010-255, allowed incumbent Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) to charge their customers, including wholesale customers (smaller
independent ISPs), based on predetermined thresholds of bandwidth use;

2. This decision has allowed incumbent ISPs to impose unjust financial limitations
on how many gigabytes of usage their independent competitors can provide to
their customers, thereby severely limiting diversity in Canada’s
telecommunications sector;

3. This pricing regime will result in impediments to independent ISPs’ abilities to
financially differentiate the services they provide to consumers from the
services of incumbents, which harms competition and market innovation;

4. Usage-based billing, or metering discriminates against certain forms of
information, such as audio and video, insofar as it charges consumers more for
content that requires the use of a large amount of gigabytes;

5. These high prices will act as a tax on innovation, free expression, and
empowerment, as those who produce content become less able to produce and
disseminate their work freely;

6. This pricing regime will increase the overall cost of Internet access for endusers,
thereby deepening the digital divide, which is antithetical to the CRTC’s
broadband accessibility mandate;

7. Usage based billing limits Vancouver residents’ ability to access online services,
to become educated, and to communicate with others, and hampers the free
and full exchange of information;

8. The City of Vancouver is increasingly moving towards web-based forms of
communication, engagement and information sharing with its citizens.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Vancouver City Council call on the CRTC to reverse
Telecom Decision CRTC 2010-255, and prevent incumbent ISPs from imposing usagebased
billing on the independent ISPs that purchase wholesale broadband.

Comments

[Laurel L. Russwurm]

This is an excellent motion.

It would be well for the CRTC to take heed; the damage that UBB will do to Canada's digital economy is enormous.

Thanks City of Vancouver!

[RobertX]

I hope Ontario follows!

[John McFaris]

Thank you Andrea, for being on the side of consumers. I really wish there were more people like you, who care about us.

Would you like to know what the high level executives at some of the other ISPs are saying about UBB?

Matt Stein, vice-president of network services for Primus, calls overage fees "an economic disincentive for internet use since the charges levied by Bell Canada are many, many, many times what it costs to actually deliver it." (That's an exact quote from Matt Stein)

The CEO of Teksavvy said:

"UBB is pure profit. IP transport of internet data is somewhere between $3 and $10/Mbps for companies like ours.... So doing basic math we're talking of $3-$10 per 300GB of data... So 1 to 3 pennies per gig of downloading on the Internet transit side."

TSI Rocky - TekSavvy Solutions Inc.

You can find the rest of their comments at DSL Reports.

Shaw uses misleading information, and tells customers that their limits are generous, and overstates the cost of bandwidth. In fact, bandwidth is 1-3 PENNIES per GB, but Shaw is charging $2 PER GB!

Did you know that Shaw (quietly) reduced all of their usage caps by 30% without telling customers?

Funny part is, the infrastructure most of these ISPs use were BUILT WITH CANADIAN TAX DOLLARS! Now they are charging us massive overage fees for using it.

Shaw, and other Canadian ISPs are using UBB as a method to control access to their competitors, ie: Netflix, Hulu, etc.  It is clearly a conflict of interest to allow a TV Broadcaster who is also an ISP, to limit our access to their competition.

Fight back! Visit http://openmedia.ca/meter and sign the petition. Forward it to your friends, family, and co-workers. We need to act on this, or every single windows update, web page, and email will cost you money.

[internet services]

Internet is the source of knowledge.Vancouver is the affordable Internet access.You post really valuable information with us.