Internet Billing, Bandwidth Caps and Price Gouging from Bell, Rogers, Telus and Shaw

Canadians are sick of getting gouged by Rogers, Bell, Telus and Shaw for going over their monthly bandwidth caps when it comes to Internet usage. The Canadian ISPs think that 50 GB is enough bandwidth for every Canadian in a given month. Bill Gates is famously misquoted as having said that “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” Unfortunately Bell and Rogers have made it clear that 50 GB ought to be be enough for anybody.

OpenMedia.ca has a great campaign called Stop The Meter On Your Internet Usage which has gone viral. When I signed their petition this morning they had around 265,000 signatures.

The petition is against a recent CRTC decision on Internet billing that will lead to Canadians paying even more for their Internet usage. The public outcry against this decision has turned into a major political issue in Ottawa. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is now getting involved in the dispute and the CRTC decision may be reversed.

CBC’s Strombo has a nice clip summarizing what’s at stake.

Posted in Technology and Web at 9:08 AM