Stop the Meter in Canada

[maiZe]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I guess it's general discussion...  I hope I'm allowed to post this here...

I think JPH!P has a lot of Canadian users, and right now, Canada's got some internet issues popping up.  The big ISPs are looking to throttle our bandwidth limits to 25 gb per month with pretty much any ISP you sign up with, and then charge $2/gb over the 25 gb limit.  This is going to hit Canadians in a bad way, and knowing my fellow Jpop fans who need the internet to keep up with the going ons with our idols and artists, we may well disappear from the webs.  I know my brother and I will get hit hard, seeing as we're already going over our bandwidth limit every month, and we're on a 125 gb/month plan.

There's a petition going on right now to try and get the government to put an end to this insanity.  Check it out and sign it if you don't agree with what they're trying to do.  I'm just gonna paste in the e-mail I got from openmedia.ca after I signed the petition.

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The more people that join this campaign, the more powerful our call will be. Please help spread the word -- tweet or email the following link, and share it on Facebook. Tell your family, friends, co-workers, and random acquaintances to join the force against usage-based billing and a metered Internet:
 
URL to email: http://stopthemeter.ca
Share on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/hZf9YW
Tweet with Twitter: http://bit.ly/gdOBtF
 
- The OpenMedia.ca Team
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The CRTC just decided to let your Internet Service Provider put a meter on your Internet!
 
Bell Canada and other big telecom companies can now freely impose usage-based billing on independent Internet Service Providers (indie ISPs) and YOU. Big Telecom companies are obviously trying to gouge consumers, control the Internet market, and ensure that consumers continue to subscribe to their television services. 
 
This means we're looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay more for less Internet.
 
This will crush innovative services, Canada's digital competitiveness, and your wallet.
 
We need to stand up for the Internet.
 
Sign the Stop The Meter petition at: http://StopTheMeter.ca
 
Want to know more? Here’s the lowdown:
 
This decision is a blow to consumer choice, to access, and to free expression. Independent Internet service providers (ISPs), such as TekSavvy, pay incumbent telecoms like Bell for access points in their networks. In applying usage-based billing (UBB) to these indie ISPs, the CRTC has allowed Bell to determine and limit how many gigabytes of usage their independent competitors can provide to their customers.
 
- This severely limits competition in the telecommunications market, which is bad for innovation and diversity of content.
- This also means that the cost will necessarily be passed down to you, the consumer.
- Usage-based billing, or metering discriminates against certain forms of information insofar as it charges consumers more for content that requires the use of a large amount of gigabytes, such as audio and video.
- This also means that those who produce media-based art, and depend on the Internet to show the world their work, are less able to produce and disseminate their content freely. This means less innovation and more control of art, film, music, and other forms we may not yet know of!
 
Sign the petition and save the freest medium we have ever known (again!). Stop the Meter and save our net!
 
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Read more at SaveOurNet.ca: http://saveournet.ca/content/what-does-usage-based-billing-mean-net-neutrality
Read more at OpenMedia.ca: http://openmedia.ca/blog/crtc-decision-all-bell-and-usage-based-billing-all
Read TV Versus The Internet by Steve Anderson: http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2010/10/06/TVversusInternet/
Read more at CBC.ca: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/10/28/crtc-usage-based-billing-internet.html

[diav]

Thanks for posting this!  I signed the petition and sent emails out today.
I'm pretty pissed about it because my limits right now are at 60GB (with Rogers) and I have a tendency to hit 45-50GB a month (it would be even more if I was with TekSavvy with the 200GB cap... oh wait, they shrunk it to 25GB shortly after this announcement >__>).  It's totally unjust and unfair.

[Asmodai]

Yep, the bandwidth limiting is a terrible idea. Canadian researchers won't be able to use cloud computing, it prevents people from contributing to projects like Folding@Home on the PS3 and kills the emergence of new paradigms for content delivery like iTunes and Netflix.

[J-Triumf]

I'm surprised this kind of thing hasn't really happened in the United States...I know Comcast has an unwritten limit which occasionally makes the news, but so far I've never really noticed such hard bandwidth limits being officially forced. Then again, our network speeds are pathetic compared to certain other countries considering how much money and tech the American ISPs have, so maybe that's why we don't have bandwidth limits--our connections aren't being made fast enough to make it a "problem".

Luckily for you Canadians, Stephen Harper has spoken out against the metering, and the feds seem to be fighting the good fight:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/canadian-metered-internet-bill-likely-to-be-overturned/