Stop The Meter On Your Internet Use

    Hey everyone, and especially the people in Canada, this is very very important as the CRTC, Bell and big telecom companies are on the greed train to screw over the little guy. I am posting this in the gaming discussion because, down-loadable content (such as games from Steam, etc) are only getting bigger and bigger, and that takes lots of bandwidth usage, am I right? And right now, small ISP companies have had great bandwidth rates with great prices. Well Bell and other big telecom companies think we have to have caps and pay more. Doesn't matter where you guys live, please help support this to stop our greedy corporation train. All of the information is provided in the quote below;

    Quote

    Bell Canada and other big telecom companies can now freely impose usage-based billing on independent Internet Service Providers (indie ISPs) and YOU.

    This means we're looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay more for less Internet.

    Big Telecom companies are obviously trying to gouge consumers, control the Internet market, and ensure that consumers continue to subscribe to their television services.

    This will crush innovative services, Canada's digital competitiveness, and your wallet.

    We need to stand up for the Internet.

    Sign the Stop The Meter petition by ‘liking’ or sharing this note or posting a comment below.

    *You can also sign the petition through Twitter or online here: http://StopTheMeter.ca/

    If you would like to get more involved go to these links to make your thoughts known and join this battle:

    * http://www.stopthemeter.ca - signing the petition will now automatically send our Minister of Industry, Tony Clement, the person politically responsible for the CRTC, an email.

    * Join the twitter campaign at http://act.ly/2kw

    * Join the Facebook campaign http://www.facebook.com/notes/openmedia ... 5248704798

    OK, so the deal here is that they want to charge per megabyte, right? This has been pretty common in germany (and i suppose in the rest of europe) until like 5 years ago but due to smaller companies offering unlimited flatrates at lower prices the market followed.

    If this is something all your big isps worked on together you might even want to call the Antitrust Divison (or whatever it is called). This has been something in germany as well, when energy-providers (electrical power) tried to increase the prices, the Antitrust Division stopped them because they were rising the prices artificially and in common with their supposed-to-be-competitors.

    The stuff in the OP is not being very clear: In Canada virtually all the internet infrastructure is owned by Bell, who are forced to lend their bandwidth out to other companies for the sake of competition. These other companies have been beating the pants of Bell, selling better service with fewer restrictions for cheaper, so Bell petitioned the government to allow it to charge these renter ISPs for used bandwidth.

    Quote from Jetsetlemming

    The stuff in the OP is not being very clear: In Canada virtually all the internet infrastructure is owned by Bell, who are forced to lend their bandwidth out to other companies for the sake of competition. These other companies have been beating the pants of Bell, selling better service with fewer restrictions for cheaper, so Bell petitioned the government to allow it to charge these renter ISPs for used bandwidth.

    Its the only way the small ISP companies like Teksavvy can stand a chance by having better service rates, but again Bell should fix their rates at least to closer match what the smaller ISP have to offer.

    Poor Canada, that really sucks. But there is no way such a model will survive. It's just anachronistic and will make Canada fall behind considerably tech wise. Even the most stupid politicians will notice that quickly. Sounds also like a good opportunity for some other big company to invest into infrastructure and attract a lot of Canadian customers.

    Except the CRTC is run by the ISP CEOs collectively. That's the most stupid part of this whole thing, the agency that's supposed to regulate the market and protect the consumers are run by the CEOs of the existing ISPs who are fixing up prices and services (all major companies that have a seat at the CRTC all offer the same packages at the same price).

    French ISP "Free" tried a few years back to invest and launch itself on the Canadian market, starting with Quebec of course. CRTC blocked them off saying they are too competitive with their offer (they currently have the best in France by far) and would destroy the market. They basically offer a totally unlimited internet, cable and phone service for 30 euros a month, which in pure purchasing power equals to 35 CAD a month. That's 4 times cheaper than the fixed Canadian prices.

    This thing needs to get in front of the WTO with huge financial penalties to companies that do not comply to the global market.

    Does Canada not have antitrust laws? This all sounds very fucked up. Surely there must be something in the constitution or somewhere that overrides such harmful regulations by the CRTC. Probably a matter of someone stepping up and sueing them through all instances. Only it would take years and meanwhile they laugh and happily collect money from all Canadian internet users.

    Quote from Furyo

    Except the CRTC is run by the ISP CEOs collectively. That's the most stupid part of this whole thing, the agency that's supposed to regulate the market and protect the consumers are run by the CEOs of the existing ISPs who are fixing up prices and services (all major companies that have a seat at the CRTC all offer the same packages at the same price).

    Sounds like Brazil

    Anyway, signed the petition!

    The Teksavvy guy is pretty good. The other two are complete douches and liars.

    Btw how does TV and telephone work in Canada? In Germany it becomes pretty quickly the standard to get everything over broadband for a fixed price. I don't think that would make much sense in Canada with that pricing. Imagine you are over your bandwidth limit and then you have to pay hundreds of dollars extra for the rest of the month for watching HDTV or something. It really does destroy tech innovation.

    TV/Telephone services vary from company to company but prices depend on what packages you choose. We have satellite based services such as StarChoice and Bell ExpressView. We have digital based services such as Bell (everywhere), Alant(Eastern/Mountain Canada, Bell owned), Rogers (everywhere), Videotron(Quebec Based) and Shaw (Western Canada), all the big telecommunication players. Shaw being the only ones I liked for internet/TV.

    Getting a package deal is the only decent way to save money on everything, although most of these companies require yearly contracts now...; well, that is if don't want to pay even more without one. Much like a cellphone plan.

    TV service is very similar to the US, only more expensive here. Same with cellphones. Since I haven't purchased TV for the last 2 years, I don't watch enough of it to justify the price, so I'm sure alot has changed since then.

    Bell actually has some pretty decent package plans. Better than rogers and videotron, not better than Shaw Cable, and I would consider it, however I have already been with teksavvy for more than a year now and moving to bell is a step down in my service and price :/

    I'm with Teksavvy for internet and George Burger, the spokesman for Teksavvy is doing a great job!

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