Industry committee  Within 15 seconds...it will become a very difficult challenge. It is going to be very difficult to respond to situations that change daily.

Industry committee  Right now there's a bit of confusion as to what UBB truly is. TekSavvy has been applying UBB for years, for probably the better part of 12 years. We apply it on the Internet side. There's an actual cost to that component. From the wholesale side, with Bell in particular, being as this is the topic, that has fixed costs that have, through phase 2, as JF mentioned earlier, been applied to all of the backbone services.

Industry committee  It should be on cost.

Industry committee  We already do that right now with the gateway access service. That's what we pay for right now. Usage-based billing is going beyond that point.

Industry committee  I can add a little bit to this as well. If they're going to make statements that say include/exclude costs, different network or not, then we need to start taking things into the context where they start talking about investments, this $6 billion or $8 billion question. They need to section off what is IPTV, what is television, what is Internet, what is mobile.

Industry committee  For what it's worth, it's really good that Konrad and the CRTC commissioners have decided to take this on in a different light. The fact that it's gone back is helpful. You're right, it does seem to lead a little bit, but as this is the pre-phase of the hearing and they're asking for submissions on how they would structure it, one would hope the input will change how it currently is set.

Industry committee  Keep going.

Industry committee  We can't. We have to buy more.

Industry committee  The reality is exactly what Mr. Mezei has just described. It is a huge problem in general and it is really a case of double dipping.

Industry committee  Congestion is a subject that it is very important to talk about. Instead of saying there is congestion, Bell Canada showed in its ads in November that for the third quarter it had activated service for more than 40,000 customers with IPTV, IP television. If there was congestion at that point and we add 10 to 25 MB services instead of just the 5 we now have, that means there was a greater increase in traffic on Bell Canada's side, at a time when it was saying there was congestion.

Industry committee  Everything that we've seen today and that we're going to see tomorrow will change in a way that is difficult to predict. Can we say with certainty that it will be a much larger use environment? Almost absolutely, yes. The world is changing in a way that is becoming content rich.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to address the committee today. Accompanying me is George Burger, adviser to TekSavvy. We're here to speak to an issue that has galvanized the Canadian people to a remarkable degree: usage-based billing. However, we would also like to frame UBB in the context of a far greater issue, which, if unaddressed, will have long-lasting, adverse effects on Canada's ability to (a) provide its people with a first-rate, affordable Internet experience, and (b) ensure that the Canadian digital sector is able to innovate in the most dynamic industry.