Herein lies the e-mail:

Dear Emma,

Thank you for your recent letter on sustaining broadband competition in Canada.  It seems obvious that high-quality, affordable and across-the-board access to broadband internet is an important lynchpin in Canada’s innovation and technology agenda for the foreseeable future.

I agree with you that the presence of competition to provide broadband service plays a key role in the economy of tomorrow, and I believe that the policy direction of the federal government should be focussed on fostering as much competition as possible, not stifling it.

My caucus colleague, Charlie Angus, is the New Democrats’ Critic for Digital Issues.  He has led the way in the House of Commons on internet-related files like this one.   I’ve passed your letter along to him as well, so he can keep you up to date on our Party’s efforts on this file.

Thanks again for taking the time to bring this important issue to my attention.

Sincerely,

Olivia Chow, MP

Trinity-Spadina

www.oliviachow.ca

This line in particular made me happy: “I believe that the policy direction of the federal government should be focussed on fostering as much competition as possible, not stifling it.”

I truly hope this isn’t just lip service and that Olivia Chow truly means that. It would give me a little, juuuust a little hope, that perhaps people up on that hill in Ottawa are listening to us.

(I also learned that focussed is a correct – and Canadian! – way of spelling ‘focused’ – who knew?!)

This e-mail was hot on the heels of an article in the Globe and Mail yesterday on discussions in the U.S. on net neutrality and how it could impact Canada. An excerpt:

“In light of what we’ve seen today, [the CRTC ruling] will be particularly telling because the benchmark now isn’t just what the CRTC heard during this hearing, the benchmark now is our neighbours to the south,” Prof. Geist said. “The CRTC will in many ways be measured up against what the FCC is doing in the U.S.”

If the CRTC is going to be socially measured, especially against the FCC (which has Obama’s backing of the idea of net neutrality), this might be the push the CRTC needs to make a long-awaited and long-overdue fair and honest ruling on the idea of ISP throttling.

As I’ve said before, I really don’t believe protests work or that the government really listens to us minions but these two items? Might have given my wee little cynical heart a little hope.

It’s not much. But it’s something.

The petition states the following:

Dear Minister of Industry,

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was created for the purpose of ensuring broadcasting and telecommunications systems serve the Canadian public and ensure that Canadians have a wide variety of options to create and view works of media or communicate across the country and the entire world.

We, the undersigned, believe that the CRTC has become a burden on the Canadian public and are failing to perform their duties in the interest of the Canadian public and that of a fair and unbiased telecom policy.

In the last 3 years, we have seen the CRTC give undue preference in the interest of commercial entities and their preference for traditional business models over competing models that would create competition and help ensure that new business models can be created to entice and prosper original Canadian productions.

In the case of Bell Canada vs CAIP, involving the use of deep packet inspection (DPI) on Bell wholesale clients, the CRTC ruled in favor of Bell Canada to allow them to continue the use of deep packet inspection activities on wholesale customers without their permission or consent regardless of the implications for the end user customers. We believe this action greatly impacts the Canadian public’s choices, competition in the broadband market and may violate privacy laws based on the Privacy Commissioners findings.

In the case of Cybersurf requesting to match speeds of that for Bell retail customers, the CRTC ordered Bell Canada to produce a new tariff to match speeds for wholesale customers. Bell submitted a revised tariff to the CRTC, however the revised tariff did not fulfill the requirements as set out by the CRTC in Telecom Decision CRTC 2008-117. Bell proposed to offer lower speed tiers and introduce UBB (usage base billing) in lieu of matching speeds. The CRTC decided to accept the tariff on an interim basis with no logical explanation. This is not only anti-competitive but shows a clear bias towards Bell Canada.

These are only two of several instances in the past few years that show the CRTC is incapable of upholding the telecom act and the interest of the Canadian public. We demand that the commission is immediately dissolved and a new commission created and appointed based on the following criteria:

1) The commission members must not be appointed solely based on their career history
2) The commission members must not only be comprised of ex-telecom employees
3) The commission should be more transparent to the Canadian public about regulatory issues
4) The analysts should be more involved in the regulatory process to ensure that decisions are handed down in a fair and balanced manner

We hereby request that the CRTC be dissolved and a new commission formed immediately to ensure that the regulatory process and competitive environment remain in tune with the needs of the Canadian public.

Sincerely,
The undersigned

If you feel strongly about this like I do, please go here to sign the petition. You will have to confirm your signature via email within 3 days but that is it.

At the time of signing, there were 3,613 signatures. Please help in making this number as big as possible. Hopefully in doing so, they will hear us.

“Someone needs to step in and audit how these lawmakers come to their conclusions as predatory tactics, which last I checked were not allowed in Canada, are being allowed to march through the regulatory gates without any resistance, all while laughing in the face of both Joe competitor and Joe public.”

– Rocky Gaudrault, CEO of TechSavvy

This article, highlights the issues Canadians have been facing for some time in regards to net neutrality and fighting the “Big Boys of ISPs”. The state of Canada’s landscape is absolutely ridiculous. We pay more for internet and face more restrictions than most developed countries.

In France, you can get an 18 MB/S connection with no cap PLUS 70 TV channels PLUS Unlimited VOIP for $66 a month. And if you’re under 26? Go ahead, take another 10% off.

Compare this to Canada: For $60 a month, you can get 10Mb download speed with a 512kb upload speed and a 60GB cap. Wow. What a steal! (Thanks to @ehacke for the information on this.)

Now the CRTC has agreed to approved a request by Bell to implement a pay per usage of $0.75 for every GB over 300GB their users use. What this basically means? They’ve taken away the ability for smaller ISPs who are renting portions of Bell’s infrastructure to differentiate themselves from Bell’s service.

It seems the CRTC is against fair competition and an open marketplace. Rocky Gaudrault’s call-out to the CRTC and higher ups in the government to take an in-depth investigation into how these decisions are made is fair and I support this 110%.

As Canadians, we should really take a stand and let these bullying ISPs know that we are NOT pleased and this is NOT okay. Please email your local MP to let them know that you are pissed off that this is happening. You can find out who your local MP is here.

I wish we didn’t feel so powerless as paying customers though. Capitalism, you have failed YET AGAIN.