BCE, the holding company of Canadian telco Bell Communications, has backed down from its plan to introduce usage-based rates for internet wholesalers after a public outcry over the plan.
Bell issued a statement yesterday, in which it proposed a new pay…
BCE, the holding company of Canadian telco Bell Communications, has backed down from its plan to introduce usage-based rates for internet wholesalers after a public outcry over the plan.
Bell issued a statement yesterday, in which it proposed a new pay system for wholesalers called Aggregated Volume Pricing (AVP).
This system means that wholesalers would buy network capacity based on the overall volume of usage, rather than on a per customer basis.
Opponents to BCE’s previous usage-based billing (UBB) proposal was that it would lead to wholesalers transferring these costs to consumers, who would then be charged depending on their own usage.
Bell’s move was welcomed by OpenMedia.ca, the public interest group that has campaigned against UBB.
In an article on OpenMedia.ca’s website, the group’s executive director, Steve Anderson, said that this was a “giant step forward” for its “Stop the Meter” petition, which has so far been signed by over 475,000 people.
But Anderson also suggested that this was “only a Band Aid solution” to a bigger problem.
He said: “We at OpenMedia.ca hope [the telecoms regulator] the CRTC take Bell’s submission as a sign that widespread usage-based billing is not an acceptable model for Internet pricing, and that it creates policy to support the affordable Internet.”
