Metered Internet and the Response from the Industry Minister

We finally have a statement from Industry Minister Tony Clement about the CRTC Ruling on metered internet. As it stands right now ISP companies that have implemented Usage Based Billing (UBB) are permitted to operate that way and charge accordingly. In a post from Tony Clement from http://www.tonyclement.ca/EN/3413/124561 he says that he his have a look at the usage based billing of customers. Now Tony Clement is the minister for allowing an opening of the mobile market (in some what of a limited fashion) but none the less he did open it some what allowing Wind Mobile to operate in Canada mostly backed by an Egyptian Billionaire. For that I give Mr. Clement Credit. However he has moved very slowly, compared to the cell phone portfolio. The internet is the medium that all communications will occur in 21st century. From Shaw's use of Home VOIP Service to Telus Optik TV, companies are finding new ways of using the internet to their advantage.

I am not in favor of UBB and am a big advocate of net neutrality but I do feel that the ISP companies do have the right to manage the traffic on the network to a point. For instance they can prioritize a Voip call or netflix stream over my torrent of the latest version of Ubuntu. The main reason I think the ISP's think they can get away with this is the outrageous fees and bandwidth limits they put on Cell Phone Plans. Think about it, most people are living with 500MB caps, I myself am pushing around 5GB per month. I know on my home internet account I average around 200 - 300 GB / month. The internet is the only thing we have, we don't have cable, nor do we want it with 99% of the shows on TV, I regard to as less then acceptable quality, and the shows I am interested in I get off itunes, netflix, or watch right on the channel's website.

Companies are looking to offset the costs of running their more costly and dieing business plans like conventional cable tv. Programming, good programming costs money, networks like HBO know this and if people like the show or the channel they will pay for it. The advertising model must also change, having companies pay for product placement like in 30 Rock with snapple. Advertisers have been getting a great deal when it comes to advertising on TV and on the internet and that has to change. If companies will not pay to have their product in a show then you need to go to brand X or have a bidding process for product placement. Imagine Tina Fey Drinking Safeway brand cola because Safeway had the highest bid for the advertising on the episode. I sure safeway would see a big spike in sales.

The world is changing, old business models don't work anymore, and the best way to make sure your company survives is to adapt and adapt fast. If this is the way private companies want to proceed then perhaps we need a publicly paid for internet access line, or perhaps we should allow the power companies to be ISPs, you can get 85 Mbps with power line Ethernet; that would make Bell, Rogers Shaw and Telus happy, NOT. I don't know what the answer is, I know the minister must respond. I hope he responds with a unmetered net neutral response but I'm not the one making the call. We will just have to wait and see.

Read my Open Letter On Metered Internet to the Government

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