Putting better, cheaper internet access onto the agenda across Canada
Better, cheaper Internet access
April 10, 2011
In two decades, Canada has gone from leading the Internet revolution to trailing far in its wake. Where once we had the highest per-capita use in the world, now we are in the middle of the pack.
Prices are extortionate. Monthly Internet rates in Canada are among the highest in developed countries. Heavy users who need extra bandwidth pay the highest premiums anywhere.
Download speeds are miserable. Globally, we are in the bottom third, with countries like Sweden or South Korea offering a service three times as fast.
Upload speeds are worse. Customers in Japan and Iceland can upload files six times quicker.
The causes of this mediocrity are simple. First, there is no real competition in the market. The hardware needed to deliver most Internet services -fibre cable and telephone wires -is owned by a handful of companies: Bell, Rogers and Telus are the main carriers. This near-monopoly allows providers to offer a third-rate product while extracting high fees.
According to industry experts, the all-in cost of transferring one gigabyte of data is about eight cents. Since the average customer uses about 15 gigabytes a month, an Internet package should cost $1.40 plus mark-up.
But in Victoria, the price for a basic 15-gigabyte package is about $30 per month. That's a colossal profit margin.
Unfortunately, there is no immediate solution to this part of the problem. More competition would require new companies to enter the market. That would take huge initial investments and there are no signs of this happening.
The second reason for poor and costly service is an incoherent policy framework.
Internet services are regulated by the Canadian Radiotelevision Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). It believes that Internet services should be treated as a utility, like electric power. That means billing for the service on a volume basis. The more you use, the more you pay.
Following this model, the CRTC has allowed whopping surcharges on high users. In the capital region, those can translate into household bills of $150 per month and more.
On the surface, this might seem reasonable. Why shouldn't high volume users be charged more than occasional browsers?
In reality, it makes no sense. Utilities involve products that cost money to generate or refine. But the content of the Internet is free, so far as the providers are concerned. The ideas, images and text that circulate on this system are the work of contributors. They cost service carriers nothing to generate.
Some industry watchers have argued that volume pricing is needed to protect against over-use and congestion.
But there is scant evidence of congestion, and certainly none that would justify the huge premiums.
The best hope for a fairer deal lies with the federal government. Two months ago, Ottawa rejected the commission's pricing model and demanded a re-think. That's a positive first step.
But clearer direction is needed. The government should say specifically how it wants to see Internet service develop. That should mean encouraging competition, perhaps by inviting more foreign investment. It means setting targets for quality improvement, to put Canada back in the lead.
And most important, it requires a firm articulation of consumer rights. If the CRTC remains committed to a high-price system, perhaps the Internet requires its own regulatory body.
But whatever is done, now is the moment for some farsighted thinking. We cannot let another two decades slip by.
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Activists push to make internet policy an election issue
By Dan Misener - Apr 5, 2011
Remember all that ruckus earlier this year about usage-based billing? Remember how a bunch of Canadians were really upset about how we pay for internet service in this country? I know, it seems like forever ago, so let me refresh your memory (and mine).
The focal point of much of the UBB debate was a petition called "Stop the Meter," organized by OpenMedia.ca. Since its launch in November 2010, more than 470,000 Canadians have signed the petition. Originally started as a response to proposed usage-based billing schemes, the petition became a sort of catch-all for Canadians' telecom frustrations, from restrictive cellphone contracts, to mobile data rates, to rural broadband access.
The anti-UBB movement in Canada seems have won a few victories. The CRTC decided to review its UBB decision. Tony Clement vowed to intervene if the CRTC didn't reverse its decision. And Bell Canada changed its UBB tune, replacing it with another confusing acronym: AVP, or aggregated volume pricing.
So my question is, now that we're in the middle of a federal election, what will OpenMedia do with its legion almost half a million angry Canadian telecom customers?
The answer: a new campaign, set to launch this week, called "Vote for the Internet."
And as much as I like the idea of planting a campaign sign in my lawn that simply reads "Internet," that's not what we're talking about.
'We just want to help people who care about the internet and the role it plays in society to make an informed decision when they vote.'
— Steve Anderson, OpenMediaSteve Anderson is the executive director of OpenMedia, and he told me the first part of the campaign is an online tool that will allow Canadians to e-mail their local candidates. "The letter pretty much just asks them, are they committed to working towards an open and accessible internet when they go to parliament?"
The idea here is to crowdsource on-the-record commitments from candidates about their digital policies.
"We just want to help people who care about the internet and the role it plays in society to make an informed decision when they vote," Anderson said.
Through the website, OpenMedia will also invite candidates to sign on as "pro-internet."
OpenMedia plans to send a more detailed survey to all the parties, asking them specific questions about their digital policies on issues like structural separation, reforming the CRTC, investment in broadband, net neutrality, and transparency in internet service. Anderson said his organization will simply report the results of the survey, and won't endorse parties or candidates.
"We're non-partisan. The only candidate we'll endorse is the internet," Anderson said, laughing.
The real goal here seems to be to raise the profile of digital issues in the current election debate. OpenMedia isn't not alone in this aim. In a recent column, Michael Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, listed a number of questions that he thinks Canadians should ask candidates about digital issues in this country — issues like usage-based billing, the transition to digital television, and copyright.
I have to wonder though, do enough people really care about the policy decisions behind broadband pricing and infrastructure to make this a viable election issue? Can such a geeky topic once again break through to the mainstream in the same way Stop The Meter did?
For his take, I called up Dennis Pilon, a political science professor at the University of Victoria. I wanted to get a better sense of how exactly election issues become election issues. Is OpenMedia's half-million e-mail addresses enough?
Pilon told me there are a number of factors that influence what becomes an election issue. He told me that issues need to touch people, to affect them personally, and to make them unhappy. Voters also need to have a clear channel for action.
Clearly, usage-based billing has touched a nerve with Canadians, and the number of signatures on the Stop The Meter petition reflects that. With its "Vote for the Internet" campaign, OpenMedia has made the channel for action apparent: send a form letter to your local candidates, and report back.
But Pilon also told me that there's another very important factor when it comes to making issues into election issues: personal contact.
There's a reason politicians make telephone calls and pound the pavement knocking on doors. Pilon says e-mail campaigns and political advertising aren't nearly as effective as personal human contact. And for me, that's the piece that seems to be missing from the planned "Vote for the Internet" campaign.
In their official party platform, the Liberals make mention of several digital policy issues. There aren't a ton of details, but the Liberal policy does address things like wholesale internet services, competition for ISPs, and the principle of net neutrality.
Conservative candidate Tony Clement tweeted about the Liberals' digital policies, saying "Liberal Platform 'borrows' key elements of my Investment & Digital Strategies." But so far, no official strategy from the Conservatives or others.
So, will digital policy have a place in this election? We'll see.
In the meantime, I'll be outside, hammering a hand-made "Internet" campaign sign into my lawn.
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