Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC, is scheduled to appear before a parliamentary committee on Thursday and by reports leaking out from the Conservative cabinet he will be given an ultimatum, rescind the decision on metered broadband or the government will overturn the decision themselves.
Industry Minister Tony Clement had this to say on Twitter in response to this question “Is it true you will overturn internet decision if crtc does not back down?”, Mr Clement responds “True. CRTC must go back to drawing board”.
This likely means that consumers will once again be free to choose competitors to Bell and Rogers that offer better package bundles, including packages with unlimited usage that Bell and Rogers were unwilling to match and instead turned to regulators to force the competitors to match the packages they setup.
The CRTC will suffer another defeat as the Conservatives have overturned previous decisions made by the current sitting panel. In 2009 the government overruled the CRTC’s decision to not allow Globalive Wireless Management Corp. to setup Wind Mobile. The CRTC decreed at the time that it went against foreign ownership regulations while the government decided that some competition was needed in the cellular market and overruled the CRTC.
Since the decision on metered internet consumer backlash has been swift and vocal. 350,000 signatures have been added to an online petition at www.openmedia.ca/meter and Twitter has been abuzz with people speaking out against the planned changes. Members of Parliament have said their phones have been ringing steady, emails have been swamping their offices and the competition bureau has had a steady stream of complaints as well.
The three large ISPs mainly behind the push for UBB have also likely been feeling the brunt of consumer wrath with many reports of people switching services providers and cutting services in retaliation for this new cash grab attempt by the corporations.
More to follow as the story develops.
