UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.
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Re: UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.
#2Thank God.
Seriously, this restores some of my faith in bureaucrats.
[edit] Interesting information from replies. I'll not be so quick to restore faith in the future.
Re: UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.
#3This is wonderful news. I was planning to attend my first 'rally' on saturday to protest UBB. I was shocked at how even non techies cared so much about this issue.
I hope the monopolies(rogers&bell) don't try less subtle ways to achieve their goals.
Re: UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.
#4Thank God. Seriously, this restores some of my faith in bureaucrats. [edit] Interesting information from replies. I'll not be so quick to restore faith in the future.
The Liberals may be forcing an election soon, and after tens of thousands of complaint emails, the decision was an easy way to gain a couple percentage points in the polls. This was a no-brainer for the incumbent Conservatives, but their swiftness in resolving the issue was really impressive.
Re: UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.
#5This is wonderful news. I was planning to attend my first 'rally' on saturday to protest UBB. I was shocked at how even non techies cared so much about this issue. I hope the monopolies(rogers&bell) don't try less subtle ways to achieve their goals.
I hope it leads to change in the future. We still have the fundamental flaw that third party ISP's need to piggy back on the big 3.
Re: UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.
#6Thank God. Seriously, this restores some of my faith in bureaucrats. [edit] Interesting information from replies. I'll not be so quick to restore faith in the future.
The bureaucrats (CRTC) were the ones who tried to force this on the population. Elected officials decided to reverse the decision. The Conservatives first said they would send the decision back for "reconsideration" and then Harper chimed in with a more definitive reversal stance. The Liberals came out earlier saying they were against UBB. The New Democrats have always been fairly progressive about the web and are also against UBB. Even the separatist Bloc Quebecois and Green Party were both voicing concern with the decision. There was no major political party in favour of the decision.
We get into these kinds of messes because the CRTC is a bunch of unelected bureaucrats playing musical chairs in and out of executive positions at Rogers, Bell, Telus, etc.. It is most perplexing because if you've dealt with other bureaucrats in Canada, most of them at least care about their jobs and try to look out for the public good. We can joke at their expense about how they have all these perks and what not. But most do uphold the laws and regulations they're sworn to. And since they tend to outlast elected governments, these are the people that actually keep programs that we depend on, like health care, running. But the CRTC? It's the lone hold out of the bunch. I pretty much have nothing good to say about that organization. I would not be sad in the least if they were dissolved.
Re: UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.
#7In some ways, I'm envious of Canada's swift reversal of this horrible idea. In the US, we wouldn't have the populist outcry to force action, and even if we did, it would be met with only a token change to the legislation that would succeed at shutting most people up.
Re: UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.
#8The second half of this article reads like it was written by Bell or Rogers.
The problem with UBB is not caps, per se, but the fact that the caps were absurdly small and overage fees grossly exceeded the cost of bandwidth. Not to mention that they were introduced at the same time as Netflix launched in Canada, and the providers' own TV-over-IP services were exempt.
I dumped my $120/mo Bell Expressvu subscription last month in favor of Netflix and AppleTV. Why should I pay over a thousand dollars a year when I don't watch 98% of what it provides? UBB is just Bell saying 'screw you, we'll get that pound of flesh one way or another.'
Re: UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.
#9Well if that isn't a ray of sunshine in a turd-sea of announcements regarding the state of the Internet.
Re: UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.
#10I don't understand what happened. Why was the government able to set internet rates at all? Is there a monopoly here or not? Why weren't we (I'm Canadian) paying per usage before -- was it a law or did a flat rate grow from convienience?