Stop the Meter!: How I see it.

How would you feel about paying to read this post?  Or, how about having to pay for each e-mail you send as if you were putting postage on a letter?   It sounds crazy but it's not so far-fetched.   A recent ruling by the CRTC allows Bell to force small Internet Service Providers who re-sell Bell's Internet bandwidth to implement usage-based billing.  

What's that mean?   Currently, Rogers, Shaw and Bell Internet plans have thresholds where you'll pay for Internet usage over and beyond that point.   The fee per gigabyte of data varies depending on the plan but the point is that once you go over the threshold you're paying for usage.  The thresholds are fairly high right now but one fear is that they'll come down to a point where you're paying for Internet usage in the same way you pay for hydro usage.   Suddenly, then, you're having to make an investment decision every time you send an e-mail or browse a website. 

Anyway, currently there are many small Internet providers who re-sell Bell's service and, to differentiate themselves, many of them offer unlimited data plans.  Under this ruling, Bell can forcibly stop them from doing that.   Talk about a competition killer!     

A Montreal-based consultant has launched an appeal of the decsion.   See http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/01/27/technology-internet-usage-based-billing-mezei.html for a CBC article on the topic.

I can understand that the major telco companies need to recoup the costs of their investments in infrastructure but, in this country, we have no real competition in the Internet provider industry.  It's either Bell or Rogers/Shaw.  They'd never gouge us would they?  Yeah, right.  Unfortunately, we still need the CRTC to reign them in.

What really frightens me is that metered Internet will act as a drag on Internet innovation.  The economic benefits of cloud-based computing would be significantly imperiled and that would slow or perhaps even halt the move in that direction.   That would be a huge loss for all of us. 

There is an organization called OpenMedia.ca that is working to ensure the Internet stays "open" in Canada.  Check out their website at http://openmedia.ca/ to learn more about them but the reason I want you to go there is because there IS something you can do.

OpenMedia.ca has a petition called "Stop the Meter" on its website that has already been signed by over 160,000 people!  Sign it!  Go to:  http://openmedia.ca/meter    It won't cost you anything (yet) to go there and add your name to the list of people objecting to this move.  

Please don't ignore this issue... if you do, it will cost you both at home and at work in the future. 

Sign the petition... pass it on!

Blackberry Problems?

Lately it seems we've had a rash of people calling with "my Blackberry doesn't work" type of problems... anyway, that's why this video struck me as so funny.  

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI