A step forward: CRTC to look into competition in Internet metering proceedings

The CRTC opened a public consultation today about the way large incumbent Internet service providers (ISPs) sell network access to their independent competitors. The results of this consultation will help to inform the hearing on the highly controversial usage-based billing (Internet metering) issue.

When the CRTC decided to allow Big Telecom to impose punitive new usage-based fees on their own customers and their indie ISP competitors, the pro-Internet community fought back by signing the Stop The Meter petition. When those signatures began to number in the hundreds of thousands, then-Industry Minister Tony Clement sent the CRTC back to the drawing board to re-examine their policy.

But we at OpenMedia.ca wanted more than a bandaid solution; we asked that the CRTC investigate the underlying structural issues that led to usage-based billing in the first place. And while our media regulator isn't going as in-depth as we had asked, the consultations launched today are a move in the right direction.

The CRTC is now refocusing on the role that indie ISPs play in advancing a competitive marketplace, which uses diversity of ownership and consumer choice as a check on unfair pricing. They are seeking comments that answering the following questions:

• How do you think large cable and telephone companies should charge independent ISPs for the use of their networks?
• What kind of wholesale pricing plans encourage innovative products and services that benefit consumers?
• What kind of wholesale pricing plans encourage network investment by large companies and independent ISPs?
• What kind of wholesale pricing plans would be most beneficial for consumers?

While we encourage Canadians to submit their views on these questions to the CRTC, we also hope that the media regulator remembers to look to the nearly 95,000 citizen comments that were submitted earlier this year.

Comments are being accepted HERE until June 24.