To all the people complaining about 'metered billing'...
Considering how most of the loudest complainers seem to be liberals... and the kind to find conspiracy in anything the Harper gov't does...
I'm amazed no one has worked this through.
In less than two weeks, Harper has 'jumped in' to examine, and now essentially has stated will reverse a relatively minor decision by the CRTC on internet access billing. Consider how long it takes for real issues like Omar Khadr or copyright amendments that would actually affect every Canadian rather than a small, vocal group in Ontario.
The script writes itself:
Let's create a small, easily fixed 'crisis' that in the end has no impact either way. If no one complains, the businesses will be happy with Harper.
If they do complain... wait for the outrage to happen because it will affect a small, relatively affluent group in Ontario.
When it hits the peak, in about two weeks, Harper can jump in and 'save the day for the common man' by ordering the mean, nasty CRTC to reverse its decision thus showing that he's not only anti-bureaucracy - but also pro-little guy AND anti-greedy big biz...
The big businesses affected for the most part won't care because they already have metered billing of a sort in the form of capped bandwidth and data limits and do the metering in 'chunks' by offering 'data packs' over and above their monthly caps. The cellcos will care even less since they've had metered billing since day one and none of this affects them at all.
People, being shortsighted and really only seeing what's right in front of them, feel vindicated at their democratic rebellion against an uncaring government bureaucracy.
Harper call an election now that people have warm fuzzies about him.
It's really quite brilliant.
My hats off to the guy who thought this one up - I know it's not Harper - he's devious enough to pull this but simply not that clever.
UPDATE: It appears that my attempt at humourous sarcasm was perhaps a bit too subtle. Those who have read my posts know I don't believe in conspiracies by governments, corporations or even, for the most part, by shadowy groups plotting to take over the world.
The first clue probably should have been the swipe at liberals being conspiracy fans... (since I'm somewhat liberal leaning)
The part about the CRTC ruling having no significant impact either way on the majority of Canadians, however, is essentially true.
That being said, allow me to clarify my position on this, since it's not stated here. My complaint with the entire fooferah is that it's small beans compared to a much bigger problem that mostly goes unchallenged. The cablecos, telcos and cellcos have been granted monopolies by the government in order to deal with the high initial costs of setting up Canada wide infrastructure. I don't have a problem with that per se - but the lack of competition it creates has led to a very bad situation here that has given Canada one of the more expensive internet systems in the world, and one that's not particularly good as well.
As a consequence of THAT decision, almost all Internet traffic in this country is routed through a small number of big pipe owners.
My assertion is thus:
a) Regardless of why, most Internet users in Canada are hosted by the big four. They already deal with caps and punitive actions when they go over. The number of people this change affects is small.
b) This is a bread and circuses event. In the end either outcome won't lead to any significant improvement in the overall picture.
c) The argument that we should all switch to indie ISP who don't have caps is just bad economics. If that happened, the big four, who own the pipes, would demand much higher fees as they see their own ISP services tank and demand on their pipes go up. Until indies start running their own pipes, this isn't a realistic solution.
d) Canada has poor Internet services based on price, bandwidth and caps compared to most of the western world. Several recent reports highlight this. Its cellco Internet delivery is especially horrible. (PS: Internet over cellco providers is the single fastest growing component of Internet use - so sorry, it's VERY relevent - the switch to WiMAX or LTE could be the start of the end of tethered Internet as a primary way to access it. And ours sucks badly.)
e) The thing that needs to be regulated isn't the nickle and dime part, it's time to take a look at the whole picture and fix it. How that would work? I'm not sure, but what we have now doesn't work very well.
Hope that clarifies things for the more excitable in the crowd.
I'm amazed no one has worked this through.
In less than two weeks, Harper has 'jumped in' to examine, and now essentially has stated will reverse a relatively minor decision by the CRTC on internet access billing. Consider how long it takes for real issues like Omar Khadr or copyright amendments that would actually affect every Canadian rather than a small, vocal group in Ontario.
The script writes itself:
Let's create a small, easily fixed 'crisis' that in the end has no impact either way. If no one complains, the businesses will be happy with Harper.
If they do complain... wait for the outrage to happen because it will affect a small, relatively affluent group in Ontario.
When it hits the peak, in about two weeks, Harper can jump in and 'save the day for the common man' by ordering the mean, nasty CRTC to reverse its decision thus showing that he's not only anti-bureaucracy - but also pro-little guy AND anti-greedy big biz...
The big businesses affected for the most part won't care because they already have metered billing of a sort in the form of capped bandwidth and data limits and do the metering in 'chunks' by offering 'data packs' over and above their monthly caps. The cellcos will care even less since they've had metered billing since day one and none of this affects them at all.
People, being shortsighted and really only seeing what's right in front of them, feel vindicated at their democratic rebellion against an uncaring government bureaucracy.
Harper call an election now that people have warm fuzzies about him.
It's really quite brilliant.
My hats off to the guy who thought this one up - I know it's not Harper - he's devious enough to pull this but simply not that clever.
UPDATE: It appears that my attempt at humourous sarcasm was perhaps a bit too subtle. Those who have read my posts know I don't believe in conspiracies by governments, corporations or even, for the most part, by shadowy groups plotting to take over the world.
The first clue probably should have been the swipe at liberals being conspiracy fans... (since I'm somewhat liberal leaning)
The part about the CRTC ruling having no significant impact either way on the majority of Canadians, however, is essentially true.
That being said, allow me to clarify my position on this, since it's not stated here. My complaint with the entire fooferah is that it's small beans compared to a much bigger problem that mostly goes unchallenged. The cablecos, telcos and cellcos have been granted monopolies by the government in order to deal with the high initial costs of setting up Canada wide infrastructure. I don't have a problem with that per se - but the lack of competition it creates has led to a very bad situation here that has given Canada one of the more expensive internet systems in the world, and one that's not particularly good as well.
As a consequence of THAT decision, almost all Internet traffic in this country is routed through a small number of big pipe owners.
My assertion is thus:
a) Regardless of why, most Internet users in Canada are hosted by the big four. They already deal with caps and punitive actions when they go over. The number of people this change affects is small.
b) This is a bread and circuses event. In the end either outcome won't lead to any significant improvement in the overall picture.
c) The argument that we should all switch to indie ISP who don't have caps is just bad economics. If that happened, the big four, who own the pipes, would demand much higher fees as they see their own ISP services tank and demand on their pipes go up. Until indies start running their own pipes, this isn't a realistic solution.
d) Canada has poor Internet services based on price, bandwidth and caps compared to most of the western world. Several recent reports highlight this. Its cellco Internet delivery is especially horrible. (PS: Internet over cellco providers is the single fastest growing component of Internet use - so sorry, it's VERY relevent - the switch to WiMAX or LTE could be the start of the end of tethered Internet as a primary way to access it. And ours sucks badly.)
e) The thing that needs to be regulated isn't the nickle and dime part, it's time to take a look at the whole picture and fix it. How that would work? I'm not sure, but what we have now doesn't work very well.
Hope that clarifies things for the more excitable in the crowd.