Stop The Meter

I've been driving my wife to distraction for a couple of weeks now because I won't shut up about usage-based billing (UBB). Apparently I'm not alone: this seems to be one of those periodic issues on which the protest gets so big the government deigns to listen. Stephen Harper's Twitter feed, if you haven't seen it:

We're very concerned about CRTC's decision on usage-based billing and its impact on consumers. I've asked for a review of the decision.

Review? What's to review? The "decision", like every other ruling the CRTC spews forth, clearly puts the interests of a very few (in this case, primarily Bell Canada) above the interests of every consumer in the country.

In all my life, I've never seen such a blatant middle finger extended to the Canadian populace. Under Bell's fastest plan (assuming their speeds are as advertised: they aren't, but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish), you'll get one hour and twenty three minutes of download time per month before they start dinging you at $2/GB. It's actually cheaper to mail a hard drive across the country. Don't believe me? One of the ISPs being held hostage by Bell's jacked rates will adopt this business model if UBB remains in place.(pdf)

I can't say why the CRTC's accepted Bell's proposal, except to suggest they're too antiquated to deal with today's media. I can tell you why Bell came up with the proposal in the first place: Netflix. Expressvu can't compete with $8/month for all the movies you can watch, so their solution is to introduce another price layer and make that layer so thick nobody in their right mind would sign up.

Unintended consequences? University students wondering if they can afford to access the four hours a week of YouTube lectures that are part of their classes. Business start-ups concerned that they can't afford videoconferencing, webinars, and other competitive necessities. No, it's not quite "people freezing to death in the dark", but there's a good reason for the outrage.

Incidentally, Bell's Fibe TV, the Internet television service they're rolling out, touts its ability to store a hundred hours of HD content. That's four times the monthly download cap, unless Fibe TV services are exempt from download caps, as I rather suspect they must be. Because as the video above makes clear, the point of UBB isn't simply a "user-pay" model. We all pay for our Internet use already, and data transfer costs next to nothing. The point of UBB is to crush competition. If it also crushes the Canadian Internet, oh, well. At least Bell will turn a healthy profit.

If you haven't already done so, please sign the petition at OpenMedia.ca.