Montreal Tech Watch

The fact that unlimited Internet service was going to disappear soon didn’t really seem to bother anyone. I wrote how this is going to be a grim situation, with Canadians soon to lag behind .

The news is getting picked up though by social media websites. It’s finally on reddit’s frontpage, shocking video games users, and prompting Canadian users to organize lobbying of their MPs and Canadian press. Here’s one proposed letter to the media:

Canadian ISPs have “just become a collection agency for the monopolies” according to the CEO of the Canadian Internet service provider TekSavvy Solutions. On January 25th, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) gave the go-ahead to allow Bell Canada to charge Usage-Based Billing (UBB) to local Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Mega-Quebec here in Quebec City. Starting in February any data over your cap will be charged extra. Despite being charged per gigabyte (GB) when you exceed your cap, if you use less than your cap you will not receive a discount. According to an employee of TekSavvy, bandwidth costs to your ISP are “1 to 3 pennies per gig”. Your local ISP is now obligated to charge you $1-4 per GB, more than a 10000% markup, and pass that money directly to Bell.

This is a disaster for everyone who is currently using the Internet; your Internet bill will almost certainly go up. It is trivially easy to pass the 25-50 GB caps that will come into effect next month. Watching a low-end HD movie on the Internet will set you back 4-6 GB, and a single episode of television could be as much as 1.5 GB. Downloading 2-3 games per month off Steam that will set you back 25 GB a month alone. Streaming just 30 minutes of 720p videos on YouTube every day could use over 30 GB. Even if you are already on a plan with a cap, this gives leeway to your current ISP to raise your prices in the absence of competition.

So why the sudden push to impose UBB? The answer is Netflix Canada, an online DVD-rental and movie streaming service that recently became available, and Hulu, an online TV streaming service that is very popular in the united states. Bell is the owner of the CTV television network, as well as offering monthly television subscription services. Bell has decided that the best way to ensure that you cannot cancel your television service (and watch shows online at your convenience) is to make online streaming of TV shows and movies too costly by over-charging for bandwidth. And through the CRTC, to force competing ISPs to do the same. That the CRTC would ignore such a huge conflict of interest is surprising, until you realize that some of its members have previously worked at Bell or Rogers and are unfit to regulate an industry they are beholden to.

It’s great to see users getting together and realize their “future” is at stake here, although this won’t be easy. I have never seen the CRTC reverse any of their decision. The biggest barrier is probably the fact that the biggest ISPs also run or own the media groups. Bell Canada has CTVGlobeMedia. Videotron is  Quebecor’s cash cow. Same story for Rogers and Shaw who have Rogers Media and Shaw Media… you see the pattern.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t join the movement. Just think that other parts of the world will be enjoying HD streaming, online media consumption, fast entertainment, while Canadians will probably have to look at the usage meter and choose not try out new services, with the prospect of becoming second-class citizens. Check out Anti-UBB.com to see what you can do.