UBB… What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Posted by Derek J.Sowa | Posted in , , , | Posted on 8:25 PM

As the debate over UBB (Usage Based Billing) rages on, it would seem that  the ‘Big Telecom’  have all the right answers, or so they would like us to believe. Shame on them! I for one am growing tired of hearing how they need to pay for the infrastructure already in place when we all, as consumers, are being over billed for the services we now receive. Just why do they now want to own the internet? Bottom line… it’s just another money grab. I agree that they may very well own the backbone, (the wires, fibre optics, ect)but the internet is a vast infrastructure with many nodes,  avenues and stations all of which the "’Big Telecom’ have contributed nothing to, so why is it now they feel they should profit off of others? Millions of corporations, businesses and consumers the world round have all contributed to the infrastructure of the internet so should we not reap some rewards also?
A recent article on The Globe and Mail does well to sum it up nicely.
Bell’s vision is an Internet that’s more like your cellphone. Treat every new Internet application as a “feature” that incurs a new monthly fee. Charge a “termination fee” if you get sick of how things are going. Above all, make everything consumers do cost more!
Sound familiar? We currently see this type of billing with our Cable TV, our home phone lines and our mobile phones.  Now, lets try to imagine an internet where if the ‘Big Telecom’ could have free rein to charge us at will as they now do with the other services they provide. It would not be very long before every web page, web app, video or song we clicked on or listened to, would have the all to familiar buttons attached.
Profit… is the real intention behind the current controversy regarding UBB, and no matter what Bell, Shaw Communications, TELUS or any other of the ‘Big Telecom’ may tell us or like us to believe, this must not be allowed to happen under any guise. As Canadians, and more so as consumers, we have to draw the line somewhere.
Click on the link to send your message to the Secretary General, CRTC  Stop The Meter: TNC CRTC 2011-77
Enough is ENOUGH!

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