Archive for March 21st, 2011

Cdn Heritage Ctee Recommends Excluding Copyright From Trade Deals, Limits on Implementing ACTA

The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has released its report on CETA and ACTA.  The report, which is based on hearings that featured Minister Peter van Loan, includes a notable recommendation with respect to ACTA implementation and future trade negotiations, including the ongoing Canada – European Union Trade Agreement discussions.  […]

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March 21, 2011 4 comments News

BCE CEO Cope Says UBB Accounts for Almost All Internet Revenue Gains

When Bell’s Mirko Bibic appeared before the Standing Committee on Industry to answer questions on usage based billing last month, he focused on the “fairness” associated with the billing approach. Using the word “fairness” seven times, Bibic mixed congestion, heavy users, and fairness with responses such as:

As for small businesses, which are generally on the same network as residential users, what you have is really a case where the congestion during peak periods is largely a residential phenomenon. It’s in that area that we’ve addressed the usage-based billing issue, and all we’re asking the CRTC for is to follow a fundamental principle of fairness. If we asked 97% or 98% of Canadians if they would be prepared to pay more so that the 2% of heaviest users pay less, I’m pretty sure of what the answer would be.

While Bell emphasized fairness once UBB became a political hot potato, the company had a far different emphasis when discussing UBB last year with financial analysts.  In an August 2010 quarterly call, BCE CEO George Cope stated:

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March 21, 2011 80 comments News

Government Launches Open Gov Initiative

One day after formally launching a Canadian open data portal, the federal governmental on Friday unveiled a new Open Government initative. The Open Gov initiative includes three prongs: open data, open information, and open dialogue. The most noteworthy change is a new requirement that all government departments must proactively release […]

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March 21, 2011 1 comment News

Gilded Age for Cable

The Globe’s Derek DeCloet has a terrific piece on the fat profit margins for Canadian cable giants – bigger than those in the U.S. due to massive price increases and no foreign competition.

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March 21, 2011 3 comments News

The UBB Deception

Francois Caron has produced The UBB Deception, which does a nice job of explaining UBB and some of the reasons behind it.

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March 21, 2011 4 comments News