The Canadian prime minister said yesterday that he was concerned about the decision by the telecoms regulator to adopt usage-based billing and that he had asked for a review.
Stephen Harper wrote on his Twitter account: “We’re very concerned about CRTC’s…
The Canadian prime minister said yesterday that he was concerned about the decision by the telecoms regulator to adopt usage-based billing and that he had asked for a review.
Stephen Harper wrote on his Twitter account: “We’re very concerned about CRTC’s decision on usage-based billing and its impact on consumers. I’ve asked for a review of the decision.”
In a decision in October 2010, the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said that large telcos should be able to charge usage-based rates to the wholesale ISPs that lease network from them.
In effect, this could mean that the wholesale ISPs are unable to continue selling unlimited data plans, where there is no limit on how much data a user can download.
On January 25, the CRTC decided that wholesale ISPs should get a 15% discount on UBB rates from network providers, but this has failed to stop the public backlash that has been gathering momentum in recent weeks.
Over 285,000 people have signed an online petition (set up by the OpenMedia.ca campaign group) that criticises UBB and is titled “Stop the meter on your internet use”.
Dan Kelly, the vice president for legislative affairs in the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB), wrote an open letter to the industry minister voicing his own concerns.
Kelly said that many of the most innovative Canadian companies would see “potentially dramatic” increases in costs.
He said: “On the whole, small firms would be directly harmed in their ability to compete both in Canada and on the world stage.”
In a statement on 31 January, the industry minister Tony Clement said that the CRTC’s decisions would be studied to make sure that competition, innovation and consumers were all considered fairly.
He said: “Canadians can count on us to do what is in the best interest of consumers.”
The government’s review of the CRTC’s decision should be complete by 1 March, according to a report in the Globe and Mail newspaper.
