Hi again,
Recently I noticed a post on facebook about CRTC and usage based billing and once I learned about it I was confused why it hasn't been on the news and why this was the first time I was learning about it. I have a few points I would like to make on this subject and the first point I would like to make is about the lack of awareness there seems to be about this. Maybe I am living under a rock but I watch the news like many other people and while I don't catch everything, I am pretty sure there hasn't been much if any said on CTV about this. I mention CTV because that is the primary news channel I watch. I am not sure about what other news channels are reporting because I don't watch them that much and I can't say what they have reported. It sort of feels like I am hearing about it after the fact when the damage seems done already. How come we have not been made more aware of something that will greatly affect us financially? For those who are still a bit unsure about what Usage based billing is about, here is a link to the Vancouver Sun that talks about it. Usage Based Internet Billing: How it works and what it costs. Now some may say that it makes sense and you just pay for what you will use but one thought I have immediately with that is businesses who use alot of internet and the cost of internet will go up. This means that their cost of doing business goes up which means the cost for us consumers to use or buy their product also goes up. Of course this is known as inflation because these internet companies are getting greedy wanting more money. So not only will we be hit with our personal internet usage but also with higher prices from businesses who use the internet for their business. That is just one argument against this usage based billing. Another argument against it is the headache of keeping track of how much you are using so you can be careful to not go over and not get gouged for going over your limit. One bit of good news is that the Canadian government has said they are going to look at this and possibly overturn this decision. To make the government aware of how many people are against this and how important it is to over turn this decision, we need to tell them. One way to do this is to sign a petition and there is one going around facebook but you do not have to be part of facebook to sign it. You can go to http://www.openmedia.ca/ to read further about what is going on and go to http://openmedia.ca/meter to sign the petition if you would like to do so. Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts on this matter. :)
