Fight For your right to INTERNET!!!

[DobbyDevotchka]

Strombo Talks About The Impending Metered Internet


I just have to love george strombolopolous for shining light on this kind of thing.

[Wyrd]

I'm going to sign that petition right now! :0

[RubySlippers]

I signed it but as an American am not sure how far its going to go. On my opinion on this as a poor American this is the death nell to the poor having access to high speed internet we lost dial-up due to market forces, I can't afford to stay on if they do this. And add to that broadband is ALWAYS on when the computer is on so if they do this will they let you log on and off like you could with dial-up to not use time up? And what about people working at home telecommuting it would hurt those jobs and companies, hell most companies that use the internet even moderately.

In the US this would likely not go over very well I already contacted Brighthouse if they do this they risk losing alot of customers we of modest incomes may have our faults but we pay our bills on time and consider our internet the one luxury we love, as long as its affordable.

[mystictiger]

On what basis do we have a right to internet access? We have to pay for electricity, water, and sewage. The more you pay, the more reliable and better the service.

[Wyrd]

Riiight. I'm fine with my net right now but paying more for it as well as every thing else sounds so much better. If you want to throw money right out the window, fine.

[Zakharra]

On what basis do we have a right to internet access? We have to pay for electricity, water, and sewage. The more you pay, the more reliable and better the service.

To a point. Right now, many people have unlimited access to the internet. No limitations. If something like this happens in the US, people who are used to and expecting unlimited internet access would find themselves suddenly paying much higher prices for something that was basically free(very low cost)  before.  That will piss off a LOT of people. People will ask, angrily why they have to pay more for the same access they had before.

[Wyrd]

I just hope that Canadians can pull together and do something to stop this.

[DobbyDevotchka]

On what basis do we have a right to internet access? We have to pay for electricity, water, and sewage. The more you pay, the more reliable and better the service.

I doubt that metering the internet would do anything towards making the service more reliable.  He said that it costs less than a penny to route 1 gig, and they're going to attempt charging upwards of 3 dollars per gig... That's ludicrous! Gig's are the same no matter what you say, or at least i hope, and you pay your service provider for the amount of bandwidth you require.  I can understand charging higher prices for more bandwidth, but screw allotting a certain amount of minutes.  It's like he said, in comparison to phone companies, they'll find ways to push you over your limit, or to throw in hidden downloading charges.  Whatever happened to the internet being our vehicle to freely do whatever the hell we want, for however long we want. So long as you're paying for a phone connection, you should be good, no?

[Silk]

Also not forgetting compaies like Net cafe's will be thrown out of buisness like no tomorrow. Around here its around a charge of £1.50 per hour ($3), now if that cafe has say 20 computers, each needing to download a 1-2 gig update (looking at mmos and such here) by comparison paying upwards of £200 ($400)just to get their products upto a playable standard, and thats just for one game. The local one has 20-30 such games, each needing regular updates. There looking at a regular fee of around $8000 just to keep their products up to date. Although there is LAN's and such, its not possible with all games.

[Wyrd]

Lets face it. The world is coming to an end

[RubySlippers]

On what basis do we have a right to internet access? We have to pay for electricity, water, and sewage. The more you pay, the more reliable and better the service.

Nobody is saying it is but when I pay $19.95 a month for basic 1 mbs high speed access and that is fair, a phone line via wire is around that and my basic cable is $15.00 I have no issues with the cost. They take people like me that use this as a vital social outlet and for education and work applications paying via meter is going to force many off the internet or I'll get pay go wireless for so much a month and sharply limit my use. I find a simple solution charge more for the faster service Brighthouse for 5 mbs charges $44.95 and more for faster speeds I find that reasonable its faster and for many necessary. But since the nation is making getting everyone basic broadband in the US metering is counter to that for the poor computer access is not a right but is more and more necessary to have as our society turns to the computer for more things. Applying for jobs, school, professional networking, social connections and also recreation.

I see this as an attack on the poor between the tech haves and have-nots with a huge favor on the haves.

[Sure]

On what basis do we have a right to internet access? We have to pay for electricity, water, and sewage. The more you pay, the more reliable and better the service.

'Have a right to' does not equal 'free' (in the sense of currency). We have a right to those things too, most would agree. By the way, Internet Access is a right according to: The UN, Estonia, France, Greece, Finland, and Spain. Several of those countries do provide a lot of their people with free internet service (you pay to upgrade to faster speeds).

[DobbyDevotchka]

  The thing that i find the most disappointing is that if they start metering the internet, it will set its technology back ten-fold, sort of like the progress of the electric car.  The phone companies will hold a monopoly over internet services, forcing it to remain the same and only accessible to a small portion of the world, which will then slow it from evolving into the exciting places it's already taken us.
We need to follow Estonia, France, Greece, Finland, and Spain's example, gd it

 

[RubySlippers]

Under the Declaration of Human Rights which is I understand not binding but a commitment of nations signing it to certain key principles and forms a basis of common international common law has several articles that could apply.

One states governments shall treat people equally and it doesn't imply economic equality cannot be considered and another states cultural, educational and recreational rights are considered all important. One could easily imply cutting off the poor from a ,what has become, a multifaceted technolgy covering many areas - education, recreation, employment, public discourse and allow acts of liberty of thought as contrary to this document. No one is saying that people have a RIGHT to the best access but rather looking at it this way people have a right to basic access in the standard technology say basic high speed [1 mbs] as a right at a price a nation can see is affordable for fair market practice to the poor. I would argue metered access may very well deprive people of these rights by pricing broadband out of reach.

[DudelRok]

On the one hand: It makes sense from a business perspective to keep your income by correctly fluxing where that money is coming from. As more and more people shift away from more "normal" services and opt for what is currently the cheaper and more usable (internet) you need to do something to balance the scales (or outright reset them).

On the other hand: It's a dick move considering the current pricing, bandwidth standards and the outcry for mandated high speed internet. Charging more for a more specific service, on the other hand, is what the US is all about and doesn't annoy anyone. Let those who can (and want to) pay more for more, do so.


Short: It reads like a money-grab. Good business tactics, bad ethics.

[RubySlippers]

Thankfully BOTH parties are supporting universal access to broadband internet so regulators would be hard pressed to make the most basic broadband ,what most low income people use, more than basic local phone service as a base. The US leaders have that right to compete and move us ahead most people will need such access to be part of a global society. Canada might lose big if they do this.

[mystictiger]

He also dismisses out of hand the idea of metering and only applying the increased rates to the higher users.

Most ISPs in the UK have upload and download limits already. Personally, I'm all for the person in the flat downstairs who seems to download porn all day long having to pay more for the privilege for bandwidth hogging.

The real reason excessive use charges would be beneficial would be to discourage congestion.

[RubySlippers]

I'm not opposed to hour based limits I had that for dial-up, you pay so much for 350 hours a month time. But if bandwidth is a few cents per GB are dollars for each one fair? Wi-Fi and high end services should be offered for more money but I'm talking 1mbs basic broadband what most people need for modern internet access. Do you really want the poor to be left out in the cold many of us already don't have fancy cellphones if we have one at all - this is another nail in the door keeping the poor in their place. Face it the internet is a de facto version of the Public Library it makes the poor and wealthy more even and all should access it but pay fairly for it.

[Revolverman]

Its all moot. The Conservatives told the CRTC to chance their decision, or they will do it for them.

[Wyrd]

Okay, so then... It's over? lol

[DobbyDevotchka]

YEEEHAW!~

[adifferenceinsize]

For what it's worth, there's a similar sort of situation that already exists in the US, albeit in the opposite direction to the same end. Comcast Cable has a system in place where there's a set maximum one can download in a month with the residential plan, and if you hit that limit twice in a 12 month period, they drop you. The limit IS 150 GB in a month for like $30 per, so you can get down to $0.20/GB there, and I've barely been able to breach 50 GB in a month (though I'm not as torrent-addicted as some of my friends), so it's not that unreasonable for the time being. I can't say I know anything about the CRTC's specifics, but it sounds more like they were going overkill with the prices than initiating some new lock down. If it was $3/GB from the first up? That's some ol' BS. If it was like $20 / 25 GB and $4/GB after? Still sucks, but if you're given tools to monitor usage, most people will have a hard time hitting that cap regularly. Add some rollover and it's probably an alright option.

[Wyrd]

I don't think this is over yet. They said on global news that the gov told the CRTC to go and review and rethink their decision. But I herd that they will still strand by their choice. 

[Rayne Bluestone]

Those of us in the United States who use Satellite internet are already severely metered.   Where I live the only satellite internet provider available and operating in the area was the satellite provider I use my plan also is not the biggest they offer.  For $70 a month I am getting 475 MB of traffic both ways combined at a speed of 750 Mbs.  If you break the limit, what Hughes net does is giving you half of dail up speed for 24hours starting at the time when the last MB was used. 

This recent attempt at Metering was probably prompted by the recent proclamation of Netflix that they want to do away with sending out physical DVD's entirely and move all to the on-demand business plan.  You know what if the entire nation got pretty much the deal I got, Hopefully cheaper prices, I would see no problem with it.

Also just so anyone knows my options are only satellite or basic dail-up

[RubySlippers]

Then fine meter everyone the same way businesses and government agencies to be fair. As I see it companies that do this risk pissing off alot of very talented black hat hackers they are going to piss off when this hurts their livlihoods I'm not for them but they do have a habit of picking fights with those messing with their income. Some in Eastern Europe are pretty brazen.

As a poor person I'm sick of the technology always being so expensive everyone wants you to get. They want me to get broadband and I did now they are thinking of metering it over a fair monthly price, that is so wrong. Unless everyone gets metered on gb use as I noted but you know they will not include them.