I have no idea what the CRTC is. But they recently ruled on something that means that, my internet provider, which I chose based on the fact that they had no download caps (unlike other greedy providers like Bell, Rogers or Videotron), will now have to institute said caps.

In practical terms this is how it looks. If I had my link downloading stuff at 100% capacity, I could potentially download 1500 GB of data in a month. I’d pay 45$ a month for this. Now, however, they limit me to 30GB a month, for the same price. If I go over, they charge me 1$ per extra GB, up to a limit of 60$ a month, at which point I’ll have downloaded 90GB. At this point they stop charging extra and I can download more. However, if I hit 300GB, they cut me off for the rest of the month.

This is basically them not honoring the contractual obligation which says I get X amount of service for Y amount of money. This is extremely unfair for me, and although I understand the position ISPs are in, at the mercy of big telcos, I certainly wish they’d put up a bit more resistance to this.

So indeed, the problem for the end user is that it’s more expensive and inconvenient to use bandwidth. And however much telcos whine about how “power users” are the ones saturating the pipes, the fact is, these power users pay for the bandwidth they use, at the rates set by the providers, and now the providers wanting to basically charge more for the same service, is a bit ridiculous and speaks of greed and money-hunger. Also, it basically stifles innovation, the kind that would move big media out of the picture, since I’m actually penalized for doing stuff like watching TV online, which is very convenient for me, but uses quite a bit of bandwidth (that, in the other hand, I’d already paid for).

I’d be inclined to go with this counterproposal to my ISP, and ultimately to the big telcos.

Previously I could download 1500 GB in a month at 45$, meaning each GB would cost me 0.028$ (compare this to the abusive 1$ a GB for overage, which is a 3500% increase). So what I propose is, if you want to limit me to 30 GB, then I’ll pay only 0.84$ a month, which by their previous rates is a fair amount. Hell, limit me to 300GB, for which I’ll pay only 8.40$ a month.

Optionally, OK, charge more if I go over 30 GB. But conversely, and if the power user / common user argument holds any value, prorate for users who go UNDER the 30 GB; so if I download only 10 GB in a month, I only pay 15$ for internet access.

I bet no ISP would like going with either of these proposals. Guess what: We users don’t like your proposal either. So please go to www.stopthemeter.ca and raise your voice against this idiotic measure that puts Canadians at a huge disadvantage technology- and connectivity-wise.