Net Neutrality: May 2008 Archives

Canadians, fed up with the tactics of some Internet Service Providers are starting to organize and are becoming more vocal in support of Net Neutrality.

A Net Neutrality Rally on Parliament Hill is planned for May 27th.

The early list of participants includes:

Michael Geist - http://www.michaelgeist.ca/
Charlie Angus - http://www.charlieangus.net/
CIPPIC - http://www.cippic.ca
Campaign for Democratic Media - http://www.democraticmedia.ca
TekSavvy Solutions - http://www.teksavvy.com
National Union of Public and General Employees - http://www.nupge.ca
National Capital Freenet - http://www.ncf.ca

For those of you interested in learning more about Net Neutrality, why Canadians are concerned, and what action you can take visit Campaign for Democratic Media!.

 

In a truly competitive market, consumer demand would influence the quality and cost of Internet services. If Internet Service Providers introduced traffic shaping or volume based pricing models, competitors would offer an alternative to which consumers would switch. The ISPs would have no choice but to modify their anti-competitive practices. Unfortunately, that is not the situation we are have in Canada. For many Canadians there are few, and in many situations, no alternatives. Canadian society allows monopolies because the benefits usually outweigh the resulting lack of choice. In return, the monopolies have a responsibility to consider the wishes of their Canadian consumers. If ISPs arrogantly flaunt consumer demand, then it is the responsibility of regulators to prevent the monopolies from imposing anti-competitive and anti-innovative tactics.

 

Stumble It!

A great video on Net Neutrality.



Canadians should be very concerned about what's happening to our Net!

Start speaking out:

Contact the CRTC

Find and contact your Member of Parliament

Stumble It!

As reported in the Toronto Star, a large percentage of Canadian Internet users are about to be sent back to the primitive and restrictive usage-based billing models of the early Internet. Rogers is about to introduce consumption / usage billing to its Internet service.

The effect of this change is just as serious as the anti-competitive, anti-choice, anti-innovative tactics of traffic shaping already being employed by Rogers and Bell. Traffic shaping and usage based billing models allow the service providers to inhibit services that are competitive to their own. And make no mistake, if unhindered they will do just that!

Once the mechanism are in place it will be easy for them to protect themselves from competing and innovative new services. If one was to advise service providers on how to limit competition, the following would be great suggestions:

1. Are consumers choosing Internet Telephony services such as Vonage and Skype instead of your own? Randomly drop some of the competitors' packets. Problem solved!
2. Are consumers listening to online radio broadcasts instead of your radio stations? No problem, just interfere with the audio stream. Problem solved!
3. Are consumers dropping your TV service in favour of watching custom Internet video, based on their content and schedule preferences? We can't have that, now can we? Just introduce usage based billing. After the consumer gets a few $1,000 invoices the problem will be solved!
4. Consumers complaining about your practices? Just tell them that it's for their own good. After all there is an "evil" 5% of Internet users that want to use the Internet for more than casual Web browsing and email. So you're real and noble intention, is that you want to protect the 95% of "good" Internet users. Problem solved!
5. Don't mention the fact that for years, you've been reaping the profits of selling your services based on bandwidth that the vast majority of subscribers never used.
6. Don't mention either that you realized that the demand for bandwidth was increasing but you chose to maximize profits instead of reinvesting in infrastructure.
7. And finally, start inserting your own content into other unrelated Internet content and display it to your remaining "good" users to reinforce the message that you are in control of the Internet.

Here's a bonus suggestion:

If a consumer calls to complain about your anti-competitive tactics do the following:

Immediately place the caller on hold while you laugh uncontrollably. After 30 minutes have passed and you have regained your composure, tell the caller that you will transfer the call to the complaints department and "accidentally" disconnect the call. Once the silly consumer calls back in, inform the complainer that in Canada, consumers have few if any alternative providers to choose from and that Bell and Rogers ensure that the same anti-competitive practices are imposed onto their competitors. Then sarcastically ask if you should transfer the call to the cancellation department.



If you care about the future of the Internet, your freedom to choose, innovation, competitiveness and affordability, I urge you to act now:


Contact the CRTC

Find and contact your Member of Parliament





Stumble It!

Here's a quick tutorial by Amber Mac on the subject of Net Neutrality. She accurately describes the important aspects of the subject.




Canadians must keep up the pressure on service providers and government. I am cautious on regulatory interference but the lack of Net Neutrality has the potential of seriously limiting innovation, competitiveness, consumer choice and Canada's ability to effectively compete in the global marketplace. If consumer pressure and impending lawsuits are not successfull, then government must step in and force service providers to treat all traffic equally.

Stumble It!