OTTAWA – Industry Minister Jim Prentice says he can’t place a throttle on the new practices of telecommunications companies that target bandwidth hogs who constantly download movies and share files over the Internet.
This week Rogers informed its Internet customers it will begin billing based on usage instead of connection speed. This follows a similar announcement by Bell where it plans to restrict certain types of online traffic on its own networks and those it provides to third-party ISP wholesalers.
Speaking before the House of Commons, Prentice downplayed the concerns of Charlie Angus, New Democratic Party spokesman for digital issues, who charged the companies of "monkey-wrenching with the free flow of information."
"The Internet is not publicly regulated, and at this point in time, we will continue to leave the matter between consumers on the one hand and Internet Service Providers on the other," Prentice told the House of Commons.
Rogers customers who exceed a specific monthly gigabyte limit will now be charged $5 a gigabyte up to a maximum of $25. A typical HD movie is four to five gigabytes. Bell says it is lifting its $30 monthly cap on over-usage charges as of June 30. The company is also cancelling its $25 unlimited usage plan in Ontario and Quebec.
The moves have raised concerns about whether Canada’s major service providers can provide the future bandwidth necessary to handle bandwidth-gobbling activities such as downloadable videos, Internet television, voice-over Internet telephony and file-sharing as they become more popular. Last month the CBC announced it would be distributing its Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister program via BitTorrent.
