CRTC chair faces grilling on Internet billing decision

The head of the CRTC is being called before a Commons committee Thursday to explain an unpopular ruling that effectively kills unlimited Internet download packages.

The federal government has already sent a clear message to Konrad von Finckenstein that it expects the CRTC to reverse the ruling.

In fact, if the CRTC doesn't backtrack, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Industry Minister Tony Clement will take the matter into their own hands, a senior official told CTV on Wednesday.

CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said von Finckenstein is in a tough spot.

"What is he going to do? Is he going to say yes, he's going to reverse his decision, or is he going to stand by it, or is he going to resign? He's really caught in a bind here because the government is absolutely determined to go, if I may say so, with the people on this."

Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruled that major Internet providers can charge smaller, independent companies according to the amount of bandwidth they use.

The move would effectively mean smaller companies could no longer afford to offer unlimited download packages to their customers.

Fife said the backlash to the decision was immediate, with 250,000 people signing a petition on OpenMedia.ca in opposition to the decision.

The Conservatives quickly joined up with those lashing out against the CRTC ruling Tuesday, at a time when election speculation is rife in Ottawa.

"The other political parties are on-side too, saying usage-based billing is fundamentally unfair and it really penalizes smaller Internet companies and people who are heavy users, namely young people, of the Internet."

The major Internet providers argue that they sunk billions into the pipelines used to carry broadband Internet service, and need to be able to charge smaller companies for using the infrastructure, in order to pay back their investment.

I don't think any of the political parties can afford to agree with the CRTC's decision to cap the internet bandwidths for all service providers. They would lose a lot of popularity with mostly people of our age group, to maybe people in their 30's. However, I don't think this was a very "agreeable" change, anyhow, and I'm glad the government is taking action in reversing this action.

Well this turned out better the expected.

Heh, we'll see if the CRTC will find some restraint in its future decisions.