Blessed by the Potato

The CRTC is now seeking commentary on reviewing the 2011-44 UBB decision. Here’s the commentary I submitted.

CPAC has the committee meetings on the issue up. Video for the first one with the CRTC, and audio only for the second meeting with the independent ISPs.

The testimony by von Finckenstein was a travesty: he clearly doesn’t understand the issues at hand, the mechanics of the industry in play, and repeats verbatim Bell talking points. It was very tough to watch: the MPs didn’t even seem to know what questions to ask to get down to the core of the issue.

The independent ISPs provided much better testimony, but the technical presentation fell down (if you’re bilingual, then try that stream, as the English translation kept falling behind and dropping out). Fortunately, most of the meeting was in English.

Ellen Roseman reports that yes, Bell has some issues with its usage tracker.

An article in the Globe raises a very interesting point: “Imagine being asked to guess how much electric power you need every month, with a penalty for mistakes.” Because UBB is not a straight usage based fee. You pay out the nose if you go over your cap, but you have to, in part, choose your cap to begin with.