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Today is the filing deadline for parties for the first round of submissions to the CRTC's hearing on wholesale Internet access services, better known as the usage based billing (UBB) hearing. Sources advise that Bell may be ready to drop its plans for wholesale UBB altogether as part of its submission. If true, Bell would withdraw its wholesale UBB tariff proposals and instead propose an "aggregated volume pricing" model that would give independent ISPs flexibility in their pricing models but leave retail UBB untouched. Stay tuned... Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareMonday March 28, 2011 |
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The federal election marks the end for at least five government bills
focused on Internet and digital policy. Bills on privacy, copyright,
and Internet surveillance died on the order paper and will have to
start from scratch when a new government is elected in May. Moreover,
the much-anticipated digital economy strategy, set for release this
spring, has likely been delayed until the fall at the very earliest.
While the legislative process may be on hold, my weekly technology
column (Toronto
Star version, homepage
version) notes the election campaign
offers Canadians the chance to raise the profile of Internet and
digital issues even further by voting for the Internet. The Internet is
obviously not a political party, but a vote for the Internet means
asking candidates for their views on the country's top digital issues:
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Appeared
in the Toronto Star on March 27, 2011 as Now’s our chance to ask
candidates about Internet policy
The federal election marks the end for at least five government bills
focused on Internet and digital policy. Bills on privacy, copyright,
and Internet surveillance died on the order paper and will have to
start from scratch when a new government is elected in May. Moreover,
the much-anticipated digital economy strategy, set for release this
spring, has likely been delayed until the fall at the very earliest.
While the legislative process may be on hold, the election campaign
offers Canadians the chance to raise the profile of Internet and
digital issues even further by voting for the Internet. The Internet is
obviously not a political party, but a vote for the Internet means
asking candidates for their views on the country’s top digital issues:
1. Global surveys consistently give Canada a middling to poor rank for
wireless and broadband Internet services. What would you do to enhance
Canada’s Internet competitiveness? How would you ensure that all
Canadians have access to affordable broadband networks?
2. Where do you stand on usage based billing, the Internet metering
policies employed by Canada’s large Internet providers that sparked a
political firestorm last month when over 450,000 Canadians signed a
petition protesting the practice? What are your views on a general
principle of an open Internet, with support for network neutrality and
open access rules that allow smaller Internet providers to compete?
3. Over the past year, Canada has witnessed increasing vertical
integration among its large broadcasters and broadcast distributors,
with the mergers of Shaw and Canwest Global as well as Bell and
CTVglobemedia. Where do you stand on vertical integration and prospect
for dominant players retaining exclusivity over valuable content to the
detriment of other competitors?
4. Canada is scheduled to complete the digital television transition on
August 31, 2011. What are you prepared to do to ensure that Canadians
won’t lose their signals when broadcasters flip the digital switch?
5. The digital television transition will free up valuable spectrum
that can be used for new wireless broadband services. Would you create
a set-aside for new entrants in the spectrum auction to facilitate
greater competition? Would you remove foreign ownership
restrictions to allow new bidders to enter the Canadian market? Would
you commit to reallocating spectrum proceeds to Internet policy issues?
6. The government unveiled a new open government initiative days before
the election that makes thousands of data sets freely available and
mandates greater disclosures of completed access to information
requests. It’s a good start, but Canada’s system still features more
restrictive licensing than comparable initiatives in the U.S., U.K.,
Australia, and New Zealand. What would you do to further enhance open
government?
7. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has spoken openly about the need
for stronger enforcement tools, including order making power, penalties
for privacy breaches, and naming names of privacy violators. Do
you support such reforms?
8. The lawful access initiative, which would allow for increased
Internet surveillance, died on the order paper last week. Assuming the
issue is revived, do you support implementing safeguards that mandate
court oversight before Internet providers are required to disclose
customer information to law enforcement?
9. Copyright legislation proved among the most controversial
initiatives in the last Parliament. If copyright reform returns
to the legislative agenda, do you support changes to the digital lock
provisions to allow Canadians to circumvent locks for non-infringing
purposes such as changing formats of a DVD or making a backup copy of
an e-book?
10. Canadian cultural groups have expressed concerns about their
ability to adapt to the Internet environment. What policies or programs
do you support to foster a robust Canadian culture online? Do you
support the CRTC’s new media decision that adopts a hands-off approach
to broadcasting on the Internet?
Michael Geist holds the Canada
Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of
Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca or online
at www.michaelgeist.ca.
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