OTTAWA – The days of unlimited downloading in Canada will live on after Tuesday’s ruling by the CRTC on Internet-usage charges.
The communications regulator has rejected a usage-based billing model proposed by Bell. For consumers, it means not having to pay for every byte when downloading movies and music.
Instead, Internet service providers have to buy enough bandwidth from telecom companies like Shaw to make sure its customers can download as much as they want.
Large telecommunications companies sell access to their bandwidth to smaller service providers who then offer unlimited downloading to customers.
Some of the bigger players were claiming that all the downloading down the line clogged up the system, making it slower for everyone.
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Bell proposed that the CRTC allow telecommunications companies to bill service providers for each megabyte of information used by their consumers.
That idea was rejected, leaving consumer groups satisfied.
“Consumers win on this one. It’s a great decision for consumers. It sets a nice framework for competition in Internet. Hopefully we will see lower prices and getting rid of caps on higher fees in Canada,” said John Lawford of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
It’s not all good news for consumers. Depending on what independent service providers decide, it might cost more to surf the web at higher speeds.
Shaw Communications, the parent company of Global News, says it has already raised its download caps so only the heaviest users will pay more.
As for the small service providers – they’re now sharing some of the risk with the big boys.
They have to buy enough bandwidth ahead of time – or else they risk giving slow service to all their customers.
It’s unclear so far if Shaw and Telus will switch to the new billing system in Alberta.
“I don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future,” says Mark MacDonald, owner of Nucleus.com. “I think everything is probably going to stay status quo and even if it does to go a capacity model, obviously competition is going to dictate the fact that you’re going to have to work it out so you can still compete and get the business.”
Shaw and TELUS say they are going to take time to review the CRTC decision before commenting on the ruling.
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