Canadian Government to Force CRTC to Rescind Metered Internet Ruling
 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1893496/

:fuckyea:

Shaw got fucking owned. Greedy bastards.

Edit: this is only for independent telecoms, so if Shaw wants to stay competitive they will likely have to follow suit or lose all their customers. (can't edit title)

What alternatives to Shaw and Telus are there that cover most of B.C.?

Don't get your hopes up of Shaw stopping UBB.

The way I see it, this is only a band-aid fix, for the time-being, this provides consumers an option to switch to Teksavvy, which provides an unlimited bandwidth option here in BC.

In the long run, if Shaw and Telus doesn't change its internet options, they are toast.

I just received this e-mail from Michael Ignatieff

Pretty sure telus has unlimited?

Teksavvy is not available on the Island and I believe it's only available in some parts of the lower mainland.

No they don't. You should check your rate plan. Though their limits are fairly high (ranging from 50G to 300G)

Fuck Michael Ignatieff. Hes just jumping on the bandwagon of objecting to an unpopular decision to improve his image.

Oh, and TekSavvy is a DSL company which means you need a phone connection and a dry line with an associated phone number. It means you'll still be paying Telus one way or another and it also means for a limited coverage area.

good news but all this whole bs did was scare consumers and force them to re examine their options and ultimately dump shaw for telus which is a better deal in every way. this might just lead to shaw's downfall giving telus to do w/e they want. either that or telus will have a crazy market share and...well...do w/e they want. until new options enter the market without being limited (like whats finally slowly starting to happen with the cell phone network industry) we're gonna keep getting fucked. i wish canada would take a lesson from europe or asia and realize that giving consumers a decent deal leads to way better business
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wow, i wonder how every major news service could have gotten this news so wrong -- with everyone reporting that it was stephen harper that personally intervened ... not the liberals as ignatieff has said!

man i love how harper has basically said 'fuck you' to the CRTC twice, which BOTH times are awesome for us canadians.

pretty ironic that harper wants big internet copyright laws, but stands up for unlimted internet, which is pretty much only for the people who download illegal stuff. as no normal user goes over a cap.

C'mon, there r more way to hit ur cap other than downloading illegal stuff. Streaming HD content itself takes up slot. And there is something call Steam when you actually downlaod games LEGALLY, just to name a few. Open ur eyes man.
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Yeah but it's the principle of it

If I'm not mistaken, it's to allow competition - the copyright issue is completely seperate and should not be adressed through this channel. From what I understand if they ban unlimited bandwidth, the up and comers will dry out, and then what options do you really have?

I don't understand the reasoning behind all this. If a provider can offer unlimited bandwidth - what's the problem with that? Did the fucking CRTC jackass who hawked this idea in the first place get a blowjob from telus and shaw execs or something? :confused:

LOL this has nothing to do with "unlimited internet" and if you don't think the average user could easily reach 75GB/month (the Shaw High Speed cap) then you are ignorant.

Teksavvy does cable internet, and has entered trials in the Vancouver area.

Shaw/Telus (or Rogers/Bell in east) were basically given a duopoly on the market when the CRTC gave them the right to build out infrastructure. All other ISP's like Teksavvy are using the big 4 lines which were payed off years ago. The latest ruling would give Bell and Telus the right to force their pricing on the smaller ISP's like Teksavvy eliminating the little competition we have.

---

Even if this current ruling is overruled this doesn't eliminate UBB on the regular user.

Shaw has still lowered caps from 100GB to 75GB (125 to 100GB on extreme) and will still begin enforcing the caps on March 1st. Overages start at $1 per 1GB, when in fact it costs them close to 3 cents per gigabyte. This is about the big media conglomerates protecting their traditional revenue sources.

When it comes to telecom companies in Canada, it seems like we're seriously getting shafted hard. A duopoly is probably the last thing we ever needed, the fact the CRTC would even support that (knowingly or indirectly by just giving them the rights, I have no idea) is a joke to me. Isn't part of the CRTC's resposibility regulating telecommunications companies? I don't know much about these kind of things...but if they're actions cause consumers to lose out on competitive pricing, what the fuck was the point of giving them jurisdiction in the first place....what a bunch of clowns.

I'm glad Harper will overturn this if it comes to it.

*edit*

I wouldn't doubt it only cost media congloms a few cents per additional GB. I can never really understand how they get away with that level of markup to consumers (lack of competition probably doesn't help either)....price gouging up the mother farking arsehole

For anyone interested, Teksavvys position on the entire issue. This probably explains this way better than I can. Thanks to woob in the other thread for linking this.

skip to 5minutes

Actually, I was just looking at the shaw website, and it says 100 GB for Extreme, and 60 (!) GB for regular High Speed. :squint:

It's ironic that the current head of the CRTC is the former head of the Canadian Competition Bureau...

So what does this really mean for customers if Shaw/Telus/etc will still charge for overage fees?

If overturned it will allow smaller ISP's like Teksavvy to continue to expand and offer competitive pricing which would hopefully drive prices down.

great points everyone. bottom line is: do i need to cut back on pr0n? because that's not going to come easy......

HEYOOO

wow, that guy is a douche! (o leary)

On the topic of Shaw...their the worst company to deal with on the corporate level. I've never dealt more arrogant bastards, same with Telus.

Shaw for the most part doesn't give two shits about the CRTC. They shift TV channels around without warning customers, refuse to put cat 1. mandatory channels and now this mess with bandwidth. Before Jim Shaw was basically forced out he would basically walk into CRTC hearings and tell them to shove decisions against his company up their ass. I guess this is what happens when you basically create an monopoly which in return make companies like Shaw extremely powerful who forget their customers and make rules to feed their greed.

Because the major telecommunication companies built the infrastructure themselves and they should have control over their own property. They should be able to charge as much as they like - I'm not sure I like the decision by the Harper government to remove that right in principle.

The problem with broadband network in Canada is the lack of foreign investment (due to CRTC regulations) and population density. In a perfect capitalist world we would have competition between various different companies which will drive prices down. But because we have such strict regulation regarding foreign investment/ownership it really stagnates development. I do think the Harper government took the right step in terms of driving up competition for wireless telecommunications when they approved Wind Mobile to operate in Canada.

OTOH, you can think of it this way too:

In exchange for keeping foreign investment out, which they benefited from while they established themselves, they have to put up with these artificial mechanisms for creating competition.

Overall, is the country better off by having an uncompetitive environment for internet providers in order to uphold some principles? Life is grey..