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Usage-based billing
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Usage-based billing (UBB) is a regulation created by Canada's media regulatory body Wikipedia:CRTC that allows Wikipedia:Internet Service Providers to charge customers more per gigabyte uploaded and downloaded.
Although the case for usage-based billing might initially seem obvious (i.e: that people who download more should also pay more), the controversial feature of usage-based billing is that the dollar per gigabyte ratio is not spread evenly throughout a customers usage. This translate into penalization for high-bandwidth customers without any economic relief for low bandwidth users.
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History[edit]
On Thursday October 28, 2010, the Wikipedia:CRTC handed down its final decision on how wholesale customers can be billed by large network owners. Under the plan, which starts on March 1, 2011, Wikipedia:Bell Canada will be able to charge wholesale Wikipedia:Internet service providers (ISPs) a flat monthly fee to connect to its network, and for a set monthly usage limit per each ISP customer the ISP has. Beyond that set limit, individual users will be charged per gigabyte, depending on the speed of their connections. Customers using the fastest connections of five megabits per second, for example, will have a monthly allotment of 60 GB, beyond which Bell will charge $1.12/GB to a maximum of $22.50. If a customer uses more than 300 GB a month, Bell will also be able to implement an additional charge of $0.75/GB.
In May 2010, the CRTC had ruled that Bell could not implement its usage-based billing system until all of its own retail customers had been moved off older, unlimited downloading plans. The requirement would have meant that Bell would have to move its oldest and most loyal customers. The CRTC also added that Bell would be required to offer to wholesale ISPs the same usage insurance plan it sells to retail customers. Bell appealed both requirements, citing that the rules do not apply to cable companies and that they constituted proactive rate regulation by the CRTC, which goes against government official policy direction that the regulator only intervene in markets after a competitive problem has been proven. In the decision, the CRTC rescinded both requirements, thereby giving Bell the go-ahead to implement usage-based billing. This ruling according to Wikipedia:Teksavvy handcuffs the competitive market.[1]
As usage-based billing is slated to go into effect on March 1, 2011, citizens are currently petitioning the CRTC to stop the usage-based billing policy from coming into effect[2]. One website by Wikipedia:OpenMedia.ca called Wikipedia:StopTheMeter.ca has been set up to help Canadian citizens organize against the usage-based billing policy.[3]
On February 2, 2011, Industry Minister Wikipedia:Tony Clement confirmed that the government will overrule the CRTC decision if they do not reverse it themselves.[4][5][6]
See also[edit]
- Wikipedia:Network neutrality in Canada
- OpenMedia.ca (nominated at AfD)
Notes[edit]
- ↑ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/globe-on-technology/crtc-ruling-handcuffs-competitive-market-teksavvy/article1778211/
- ↑ http://business.financialpost.com/2011/01/27/crtc-petitioned-to-stop-usage-based-billing-as-netflix-questions-its-canadian-future/
- ↑ http://www.stopthemeter.ca
- ↑ http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Harper+Conservatives+quash+CRTC+decision+killing+unlimited+Internet/4214199/story.html
- ↑ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/crtc-will-rescind-unlimited-use-internet-decision-or-ottawa-will-overturn-it/article1892522/
- ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/02/03/crtc-internet-clement.html
References[edit]
- Usage-based billing for Gateway Access Services and third-party Internet access services, Telecom Decision CRTC 2011-44, January 25, 2011
