Archive for July, 2011

Taking on Big Telecom: A Trip to the CRTC’s UBB Hearings

Torontoist has a terrific piece by Mark Coatsworth on his experience participating in the CRTC usage based billing hearing.

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July 18, 2011 1 comment News

“Hands off the Internet”

The Ottawa Citizen featured a masthead editorial over the weekend calling on the CRTC to avoid placing new regulations on over-the-top video providers, instead easing restrictions on Canadian broadcasters.

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July 18, 2011 Comments are Disabled News

Competition, Not Congestion Driving Internet Data Cap Debate

Appeared in the Toronto Star on July 17, 2011 as Competitive conditions prompt Web data-cap debate The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has struggled for years to deal with an issue that lies at the heart of Internet services in Canada: how can it foster greater competition from independent Internet […]

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July 18, 2011 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

Shaw Places Spotlight on Net Neutrality Rules With Online Video Service Plans

Two of the leading issues before the CRTC – over-the-top video and usage based billing – have come together as Shaw has announced plans to launch a new online movie service designed to compete with Netflix. Subscribers to the service, which will cost $12 per month, will be able to watch on their TV and computer. Most notably, Shaw says that the service will not count against subscriber data caps. Given the problems users of over-the-top video services have encountered with the caps, the Shaw approach places the spotlight on the CRTC net neutrality guidelines and undue preference rules. [Update: Shaw now says that watching movies via the Internet will count against user caps]

Last week I examined the failure to effectively enforce the guidelines, however, this case raises the question of whether Shaw is violating the rules by offering an over-the-top video service that does not count against a user cap while traffic from competitors such as Netflix does. The obvious complaint will be that Shaw is giving itself an undue preference in violation of Section 27(2) of the Telecommunications Act:

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July 15, 2011 18 comments News

CRIA Gives Award of Appreciation to Ex-Liberal MP McTeague

CRIA, now known as Music Canada, has given an Award of Appreciation to former Liberal MP Dan McTeague. I wrote about McTeague as CRIA’s Unofficial Spokesperson last February, which later escalated into competing blog posts. McTeague was defeated in the May election. CRIA also gave an award to Conservative MP […]

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July 15, 2011 6 comments News