CRTC’s permission of
Internet Usage Based Billing by the “Big 3”
A BIG BLOW TO IMMIGRANT
COMMUNITIES
By The
National Ethnic Press and Media Counsil
The Ethnic
Press and Media Council of Canada (EPMC), consisting of more than 80
third-language publications and other print and electronic media, strongly
protests the CRTC’s decision of last October to allow Bell, Rogers and
Telus, Canada’s largest communications giants, to charge internet access
and video downloads hundreds
of dollars more per month.
Essentially,
we wish to strongly protest the recent CRTC decision to allow Bell Canada
(and by extension the other Bell-application supporters Rogers Cable and
Telus) to charge Internet (Broadband) customers through Usage Based
Billing (UBB). This decision, indirectly, gave ownership of the free
Internet (a worldwide free information, education and entertainment
resource) to the “big 3” telecommunication corporations who now become
the “oligopoly of the three”. In addition, this unacceptable decision
has also eliminated from the market their competing small Internet Service
Providers (ISPs), which were providing up to the end of January 2011
unlimited discounted broadband video downloads to their customers at
approximately $30 per month. Despite the “corrective CRTC decision” to
force the “big 3” to discount by 15% the wholesale fee charged to
small “third-party” ISPs, this is only the ISP’s profit margin with
almost nothing to be passed over to consumers. These “Big 3”
Corporations, and especially their conglomerate counterparts in the USA,
have purposely created the controversy of such self-serving issues of
“Net Neutrality” and “Net Throttling” to enlarge their profit
margin and investment portfolios, and all in the absence of the
unsuspecting public. To do it with the blessing of the CRTC is a betrayal
of public interest and trust for which it was created.
Essentially,
what now on average costs consumers $45-60 per month to connect, through
the “Big 3”s distribution “pipes”,
to the broadband as long as they wish, with UBB billing method Bell
and the other “Big 3”will charge customers $1 to $2 per extra GB (Giga
Bites) over and above the above monthly charge (which usually includes
from 25-75 GBs depending on the company connecting
you to the internet) to download up to 300 GBs of video downloads
at an extra $60 per month. But many fear the $120 per month to access the
free Internet is a shameless profit for the “big 3” whose cost is
hardly 2 cents per GB.
The
mainstream media, unfortunately, have only recently given little or no
prominence to this issue because the extra cost will affect only a
minority of heavy users of internet television video downloads in the
main-stream consumer society ( such as users of movies by NetFlix etc). Of
course, the general public remains largely uninformed of an issue that, in
the months and years to come, will heavily impact into their pockets.
Ofcours, more than three hundred thousand citizens have petitioned the
federal government to reverse the CRTC decision.
Why, then,
this issue becomes of such great concern to the Ethnic Press and Media
Council? Simply, because it is the members of the ethno-cultural and
third-language communities that will mostly negatively be affected by this
outrageous decision by a Government Agency which presumably exists to
protect the public interest and not the bottom-line of huge corporations.
The
main-stream consumer has the multi-media option to watch television or
video programs at a
reasonable and competitive monthly cost (either through Free-to-Air
broadcasting, or traditional cable or satellite feeds) without depending
on the broadband connection for television viewing. This is not the case
with the ethno-cultural consumers. The few CRTC Canadian ethnic television
Licensees unfortunately, mainly due to large production and distribution
costs, offer low local quality programming and limited choice
of home-country television viewing at a very high monthly cost per
channel, so that most of the ethno-cultural consumers download television
through free websites or low subscription fees in the Internet. Therefore,
the average video-download GBs needed for such viewing exceeds 160 GBs per
month.
UBB
connection to the broadband will cost hundreds of dollars per month,
forcing our consumers become hostage to the big corporations which, with
the blessing of our Government, not only can charge us for use of their
“pipes” to distribute to our homes the free Internet but also to
charge per content which they do not own. In addition, the average
consumer-and especially in our immigrant communities- is not capable of
checking how many GBs they are charged by the “oligopoly of the 3”.
We ask of
our Government to reverse the CRTC decision on UBB or in the alternative
to force the “big 3” to cap ethnic web-television download costs to no
more than $ 35.00 per month for both the connection fee and including 150
GBs per month. Such action not only will encourage investment in new media
development, but it is absolutely vital to the preservation of our
ethno-cultural heritage and well-being of our communities.
On behalf of
the all the members of the Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada,
The
President, Tom Saras
cc: - The
Right Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
-The Hon. Tony Clement, Minister
of Industry
- The Hon.
Moore James, Minister of Canadian Heritage and \official
Languages
-
CRTC Chairman: Mr. K. von Finckenstein
