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In Japan, Sweden and other developed countries one can get 100 Mbps down/10 Mbps up fiber-to-the-home internet connections for the same price we pay for 5 Mbps down/1 Mbps up DSL "broadband" here in Canada. That's 20 times faster download and 10 times faster upload for the same price. Even the United Kingdom has seen broadband prices fall 40% in the last 4 years (ref: http://money.uk.msn.com/mortgages/b...entid=149237128) and Australia's government is building a $31 billion infrastructure of fiber-optic connections for its citizens (ref: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/t...&ref=technology).
The evolution of internet services Canadian citizens are given access to is being crippled by monopolies like Bell, Rogers & Telus (Big 3) and corrupt Government factions like the CRTC. Bell Canada's telephone network was funded by the Government and paid for by our tax dollars, and now they're using that same infrastructure to price-gouge the same people that paid for the network in the first place: us Canadian citizens. Both Bell & Rogers have been doing deep-packet inspection of all internet traffic on their network (the equivalent of the post man reading your mail), invading consumer privacy and discriminating against certain internet services. The FCC in the United States forced ISPs there to stop all deep-packet inspection activities (even president Obama said in a speech "[...] we have to ensure free and full exchange of information and that starts with an open Internet"). Ref: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/...hrottling.html.
Now the CRTC has approved Bell's latest anti-competitive tactic to charge ALL retail and wholesale customers based on usage. That means anyone that uses more than 60 GB of combined download and upload data per month is going to see their internet bills increase come November 2009. Ref: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/...net-usage.html.
It's time for everyone to speak out against Bell and the CRTC. It's time for Canadian consumers to voice their opinions. We need more competition, not less, in the Canadian telecom industry to improve the state of internet services in Canada. We need internet service prices to come down in this recession, not go up. We, as a country, can't allow our internet services to fall so far behind all the world's developed countries. 5 Mbps out-dated DSL internet is being deployed in 3rd world countries, yet we still consider that broadband here in Canada!
What can you do:
* First and foremost, sign this petition: http://dissolvethecrtc.ca/. (Also see article: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/...ownloading.html)
* Write to your local MP. Find your local MP's contact information here: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Com...aspx?Language=E
* Speak with your wallets and stop feeding Bell! Cancel any and all services you currently have with Bell. There are many other options (TekSavvy, Primus, Videotron, etc.).
* Spread the word: send this to everyone on your mailing list please! This is not spam.
Here are some additional links for your reference:
Net-neutrality FAQ: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/...rality-faq.html
Stop UBB: http://stopusagebasedbilling.wordpress.com/
CRTC corruption: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&e...ruption&spell=1
Save Our Net: http://www.saveournet.ca/
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