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Usage Based Billing In Canada To Be Rescinded
theshowmecanuck writes "The Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Industry are set to reverse a ruling by the CRTC (Canadian Radio and Television Commission) allowing big Cable and Telecom companies to charge based on bandwidth usage. The ruling applied to both retail customers and smaller ISPs buying bandwidth wholesale from the major companies. The head of the CRTC has been called to testify before cabinet on why they want to allow the big internet providers to do this. In this case the elected government agrees with the very large number of angry Canadians that this was bad for competition. Most Canadians see this as a bureaucracy aided cash grab with very suspect timing since companies like Netflix are starting to move into the Canadian market (big cable companies lowered caps and increased usage fees a week before Netflix started Canadian operations). The CRTC has a fair number of ex-industry executives on the board."
Just so you know, the caps were reduced drastically (I get 100GB on the largest plan available from my ISP in my area), and the overage charges are ridiculous. You talk about 10 cents per GB, but we're being charged between $1 and $2.50 per GB.
The CRTC has a fair number of ex-industry executives on the board.
Apparently none were ex-Netflix.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
That idiocy again. Gasoline is metered because gasoline can be stored and used later. Gasoline that you don't use now is a substitute for other gasoline that you would have to buy later. Electricity is metered because the resources from which it is created can be stored and used later. (And yes, electricity that can't be stored is free if the demand is less than the supply.) Water can be stored. Making a unit of clean water, electricity, diesel costs a relatively fixed amount of money. Making a unit of transfer volume does not cost a fixed amount of money. You can only build networks and the price of a gigabyte transferred goes down the more you transfer, because the cost of the network is practically constant, regardless of utilization. If you want to pay by gigabyte, then do so, but know that you're asking to be price-gouged and will get less for more. With consumers as dumb as you, we'd still be telling users not to surf so many web pages with big images, like admins in the 90s did when the web was new and increased the demand for bandwidth over the previous text-only protocols at least tenfold.
(If you're wondering why I'm calling you an idiot instead of calmly explaining the problem with your "argument", it's because you keep ignoring the facts. You're a Slashdot regular and you know quite well why electricity and other utilities are not a good analogy for computer networks, yet you bring up this bullshit every time. You're either trolling or an idiot, and I have no sympathy for that. Moderators don't mod you down because you're presenting an unpopular opinion, your comment deserves negative moderation because it is a display of ignorance or malice.)