Industry committee  From a consumer point of view, it's very important that you make it clear to people, through your decision or your report, that you care how much they pay for Internet; you understand how much they rely on it; and when things get seriously out of whack, whether there's a regulato

Industry committee  I went through a hearing recently about getting Internet out to the rural areas, determining whether satellite was affordable, and whether other technologies like WiMax could work. They can. They haven't been really pushed. When Bell got money from the deferral accounts, which

Industry committee  Mr. Masse also touched on a couple of ideas. You can be quite aggressive. I don't think this would happen in Canada, but you could require the large incumbents to cut off their network arm, their retail arm, and have two separate ones. I don't think we need to go that far. What y

Industry committee  I looked at the telecom notice of consultation that came out today, and as Rocky said earlier, I found it very leading, in the sense that it's talking about a general rule that ordinary consumers, whether they're those of the small ISPs or not, shouldn't have to pay for the heavy

Industry committee  If by this model you mean we have what I think Harvard's Berkman Center said was a lukewarm effort at wholesale regulation, then yes, this model doesn't work. If you're strict about your wholesale regulation, you say cost-based and the wholesalers can do whatever they want, then

Industry committee  The caps have never been in place. In the United States there were practically citizen revolts there when they tried to be implemented by the cable DSL Internet providers. There is very little competition in Canada. The only competition you have is from small ISPs with a wholes

Industry committee  The peak period is what should be driving this whole debate. You only have problems when your capacity is full. It doesn't matter who is causing it, it just has to be managed. The CRTC said, in the traffic management decision, first, we want carriers to build their networks up; s

Industry committee  You're asking me how the CRTC explains it, or...?

Industry committee  There should be a wholesale market so there is competition. Otherwise, first, you have only baby Bells, if I can put it that way, that are reselling exactly the same thing. Second, if I am a wholesaler, it is up to me to decide how I earn my money. If it is from unlimited access

Industry committee  Sure. Usage-based billing, as it becomes widespread, asks people to restrict their usage of bandwidth. And it enforces it with a very effective thing, and that's by price. And it is effective because people do reduce their bandwidth when they get the monthly bill. But if you ar

Industry committee  Part of the telecom policy review panel's recommendations were taken and part were not. That one about the competition telecom tribunal was not taken up. I think it would have helped, because the kind of expertise you need in this case needs to have more competition law informing

Industry committee  The policy direction has caused much consternation among consumers, and I think you will continue to see problems like this bubble up to the political level if it stays completely as is.

Industry committee  There are two courses. One is revoke the policy direction. There have been a number of decisions on social measures that we find very anti-consumer-protective, and also have not come through on the competition side. The other way of doing it is to clarify--again--what it means, a

Industry committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair, committee members, Mr. Clerk and staff, my name is John Lawford and I am counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, PIAC. With me is Janet Lo, also counsel at PIAC. We are here today to represent PIAC and the Consumers' Association of Canada in your st

Industry committee  Bell says that few customers will be affected by across-the-board usage-based billing: only 2% of users. This is misinformation. All customers, whether they take their Internet service from Bell, Telus, a cable company like Shaw or Rogers, or an independent ISP, such as TekSavvy