Slashdot Mirror
What the US Can Learn From Canada's Internet Policy
blottsie writes As the U.S. continues to debate how best to establish net neutrality regulations over Internet service providers, author and journalist Peter Nowak explains how how Canada has already dealt with these issues, and what the U.S. can learn from its neighbor to the north."[Canadian Prime Minister Stephen] Harper has made the connection between telecom policy and actual votes, and that has had enormous impact on public policy," says Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa. "This is a ballot-box or pocket-book issue that hasn't really been seen yet in the United States."
At least in Canada I know what I'm buying then. I get X GB per month, and there is (at least in my area) 3 different ISPs (1 cable, one DSL, and one independent) that I can go to. I go to the one that gives me more bandwidth, higher caps at a lower price (duh). It's $48/month for 300 GB, and there's an unlimited package for about $60, but we just don't seem to ever break that cap. (We came close once but reduced it by lowering the bandwidth settings on my wife's Netflix profile :)
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
And what regulation, exactly, enabled that competition? Simply declaring ISPs as utilities will certainly not encourage that type of competition.
Forcing the incumbents to, simply put, "wholesale" to IISPs. We went from a choice of 1 DSL provider and 1 cable provider per area to over 200 registered ISPs across the country. It's no where near as good as functional separation but it's better than the US system.