A GRASSROOTS INITIATIVE designed to stop incumbent ISPs like Bell, Rogers and Shaw from implementing usage-based billing seems to be quietly gaining momentum.
Led by the consumer group OpenMedia.ca, the campaign launched a petition late last week which calls usage-based billing “a blow to consumer choice, to access, and to free expression” and “devastating not only for the user experience, but for all innovation and entrepreneurship online”.
Using an image of a parking meter whose red ‘expired’ tag reads “Too Much Internet”, the petition had over a thousand names in less than 24 hours. This prompted the OpenMedia.ca network to kick off an official campaign which it says is designed to persuade Industry Minister Clement, the CRTC, and other stakeholders to put an end to usage-based billing.
“People want more Internet, not less,” said Steve Anderson, the group’s national coordinator, in a statement. “Usage-based billing runs explicitly contrary to the principles of an open Internet and to consumer choice.”
The CRTC recently altered the way it allows Bell Canada to implement usage-based billing on certain wholesale gateway access service (GAS) customers, after issuing its original decision back in May.
OpenMedia.ca is a national, non-partisan, non-profit public engagement organization working to advance and support an open and innovative communications system in Canada. Its primary goal is to increase public awareness and informed participation in Canadian media, cultural, information, and telecommunication policy formation.
Click here for more on the ‘Stop the Meter’ campaign.
