Canada Upholds Net Neutrality Rules In Wireless TV Case

An anonymous reader writes Canada's telecom regulator has issued a major new decision with implications for net neutrality, ruling that Bell and Videotron violated the Telecommunications Act by granting their own wireless television services an undue preference by exempting them from data charges. Michael Geist examines the decision, noting that the Commission grounded the decision in net neutrality concerns, stating the Bell and Videotron services "may end up inhibiting the introduction and growth of other mobile TV services accessed over the Internet, which reduces innovation and consumer choice."

Comments

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it was just demonstrated that Canada isn't totally in the hands of its corporations. (The oil industry notwithstanding because of the current Conservative gov't)

Re:Wow

[tom229]

They're forcing Bell to play fair, which ultimately is good for Canadian citizens as it limits the power of the telecom oligarchy. I would agree that it's far from "common sense" though. Drowning an industry in regulations rather than curing the underlying problem is lazy and short-sighted. If you want my 2c, the entire telecom infrastructure needs to be appropriated and put into the public domain. Maintenance and access to it can then be contracted out, much like we do with traffic infrastructure.

Re:Wow

[Dr J. keeps the nerd]

The person who brought the challenge to the regulator's attention was a graduate student. I don't think he has very much money, just training and time.

Re:What?

[aristotle-dude]

Still a fucking miracle with Harper and the current CRTC. The major players had a lot of victories in recent years.

Sorry but how is it a miracle? Have you not seen the commercials from the Harper government about changing the wireless industry in favour of the consumers? Did previous governments even attempt to reform the CRTC or how the wireless industry treats consumers? The answer is no so why the anti-harper rhetoric? Previous governments either did nothing to improve the industry for the benefit of consumers or made it worse by appointing industry cronies to the CRTC board. If you want to blame why it was bad, look at previous liberal governments.