UBB Hearing Media Round-Up

To help keep you up to date on the CRTC's usage-based billing (Internet metering) hearing running from Monday, July 11th - Friday, July 22nd, we're using this page to summarize what's going on, and round up all relevant media coverage, documents, and transcripts for the hearing.

Learn more checking out the transcript of Live Chat debrief, which took place at http://openmedia.ca/chat on Thursday, July 21.

...And don't forget to keep sharing the petition at http://www.StopTheMeter.ca

• The CRTC's perfect storm | Postmedia News
• CRTC Wholesale UBB Hearing to run July 11-19 | The Wire Report

Documents and Transcripts

OpenMedia.ca/CIPPIC's Submissions

• Reply Comments for UBB Proceeding
• Initial Comments for UBB Proceeding
• Submission to the CRTC Re: Scope of UBB Proceeding

CRTC Documents and Notices

• Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2011-77
• Organization and conduct of the public hearing

Read more comments and submissions sent to the CRTC HERE.

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• Bell suggested that their customers like UBB! Twitter didn't like that too much
• Bell squirmed when asked numerous questions about costs, and couldn't answer many, despite their army of lawyers being three rows thick.
• Telus stated that they don't need UBB because they have invested in their networks. Conclusion: Bell wants us to reward their failure.

Media Coverage

• Why Net Neutrality and Usage Based Billing Are Two Sides of the Same Coin | Michael Geist
• Bootup: Public hearing on usage-based Internet billing begin | Financial Post
• CRTC kicks off Internet pricing hearings | The Globe And Mail
• CRTC drills BCE on UBB | Toronto Sun
• Competing views on internet billing
  clash at CRTC | iPolitics
• Internet usage-based billing hearings | 570 News
• CRTC Hearings on Internet Pricing Begin in Ottawa

• Internet billing hearings bring to light digital divide between big ISPs | Financial Post
• CRTC scrutinizes internet pricing | Global News
• CRTC hears new internet billing ideas | CBC News
• Smaller ISPs use more than their share of bandwidth, Bell tells hearing | TheStar.com
• Another Internet-based usage billing hearing | News 1130
• CRTC begins hearings on wholesale Internet rates | CTV.ca
• Bell pitches new usage-based internet billing idea | CBC News
• Bell insists on some form of usage-based billing | IT World
• Internet Pricing Hearings Underway | The Mark

Documents and Transcripts

• Day 1 Transcript
• Speech by CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein
• Audio: OpenMedia.ca's comments at the UBB hearing
• Find more Day 1 audio at DSLReports

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• First thing in the morning, we at OpenMedia.ca joined CIPPIC to defend the position of the half-a-million who have signed the Stop The Meter petition.
• We were stunned to hear CRTC Vice Chair Tom Pentefountas ask us, "What is so undemocratic about allowing a few companies to control the Internet?"
• Pentefountas also suggested that we (a public interest organization) are "just as self-serving" as the big telecom companies.
• The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) discussed its proposal: that indie ISPs pay only for the maximum network capacity they use during peak hours.

Media Coverage

• Metered billing: it's a lack of competition, not congestion | Ars Technica
• CRTC Vice-Chairman: “What Is So Undemocratic About Allowing a Few Companies to Control the Internet?” | Stop The Cap
• 'Big telecom' internet investment too low, consumer groups say | CBC News
• Groups, regulators square off at CRTC hearings | The Globe And Mail
• CRTC scrutinizes internet pricing | Global Winnipeg
• Canada's CRTC to discuss usage based billing, broadband pricing | FierceTelecom
• CRTC begins usage-based billing hearings | Telemanagement
• CRTC UBB Hearing, Day 2:"What is so undemocratic about allowing a few companies to control the Net?"
• Small ISPs pitch own internet billing idea | CBC News

• CRTC hears sides on usage-based billing | The Chronicle Herald
• Canada’s Usage Based Billing Hearings Kicks Off | ZeroPaid

Documents and Transcripts

• OpenMedia.ca/CIPPIC's Opening Remarks for the UBB Hearing
• Day 2 Transcript

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• Bell billing idea will stifle internet competition, CRTC told | CBC News
• Billing plans under microscope | QMI Agency
• Dream big: some modest reforms for Canada's media landscape | The Globe And Mail

Op-Eds

• Canadians have spoken against a metered Internet | By OpenMedia.ca's Steve Anderson and Reilly Yeo for the Ottawa Citizen
• Re-posted in The Montreal Gazette
• The telecom-policy quadruple play | By Teksavvy chief executive Marc Gaudrault for the National Post

Documents and Transcripts

• Day 3 Transcript

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• Bell internet plan risks 'double charging' users, CRTC told | CBC News
• Podcast: The return of the UBB debate | FP Tech Desk
• Even without higher Internet user fees, cable company profits rose in 2010, CRTC reports | Vancouver Sun
• Usage-Based Billing
  UBB, CRTC, and Other Headache-Inducing Acronyms | The Mark
• Geist: Competitive conditions prompt Web data-cap debate | TheStar.com

Op-Eds

• Taking on Big Telecom: A Trip to the CRTC's UBB Hearings | By Mark Coatsworth for the Torontoist
• Hands off the Internet | The Ottawa Citizen

Documents and Transcripts

• Day 4 Transcript
• Find Day 4 audio at DSLReports

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• CNOC continued to push for its proposal (the one we support), the 95th percentile model
• Telus seems supportive of indie ISP idea, but states they would also support a volume-based proposal like Bell's
• Most groups appear to believe that Bell's proposal, aggregated volume pricing (AVP), will not be suitable
• Bell's Mirko Bibic attempted to modify the AVP proposal during the rebuttals. Bell soon decides to go back and table another volume-based proposal.
• Chris Tacit, counsel for CNOC, commented on the UK's success with functional separation

Media Coverage

• A Week of Hearings On Usage-Based Billing: The Death Rattle of the “Congestion” Excuse | Stop the Cap!

Documents and Transcripts

• Agenda for the Oral Rebuttal phase of the hearing
• Day 5 Transcript
• OpenMedia.ca's Oral Rebuttal
• Find Day 5 audio at DSLReports

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• Consumers rebut internet billing arguments | CBC News

Documents and Transcripts

• Day 6 Transcript
• Find Day 6 audio at DSLReports

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*If you've found other media coverage that we should include here, please email it to lindsey@openmedia.ca or tweet @OpenMedia_ca.