What is a fair price for Internet service?
Hugh Thompson,
Globe, Mail,
Feb 03, 2011
With internet usage increasing exponentially because of audio and video applications, you might think that the service providers make a good point when they say that bandwidth caps and extra fees are a necessary cost of access. But opponents of the caps and fees accuse the ISPs of gouging - charging what the market will bear, no matter what the cost to consumers and the wider economy, rather than a fair price for the service. And the numbers support the opponents. As this article shows, an extra gigabyte of download costs the ISP a total of 3 cents. Meanwhile, under current plans, they are charging the consumers as much as 5 dollars. "The vast mark-up granted to cable and telecommunications under UBB (Usage based Billing) by the CRTC demonstrates that the federal regulator has failed to deliver a competitive Internet services business in Canada." And this is not just hurting consumers, it's hurting business, and it's hurting the provision of social services, including online learning.
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