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Public and Political Concern Over Usage Based Billing Gathers Steam

By Michael Geist

The increasing use of bandwidth caps and usage based billing models among Canadian ISPs may enjoy support from the CRTC, but the practice has begun to attract increasing critical attention in both the media and at the political level.  Yesterday, the NDP issued a release lamenting that "Canada is already falling behind other countries in terms of choice, accessibility and pricing for the Internet."  NDP MP Charlie Angus, who will be appearing at a net neutrality town hall on the weekend, noted that UBB could be used to limit third-party services such as Netflix.

The concern from the NDP follows growing press coverage of the issue as well as petitions, public letters, and social media advocacy groups pressing for change.  With the national media picking up on the story, it appears that UBB could emerge as one of the big consumer Internet issues of 2011.

Full post as published by Michael Geist on January 21, 2011 (boomark / email).