What's the deal with the new CRTC ruling?

A recent CRTC decision could allow the incumbent phone companies (such as Bell and Telus) to discontinue offering services (Internet and phone) to wholesale providers. This ruling could also allow the large companies to do with the lines as they please. Many fear that this would open up future privacy invading Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technologies and direct marketing/advertising based on *you* and *your families* internet activities and habits. Now this isn't so far fetched. The value of this marketing information is enough of a motivation for these companies such as Bell to do such a thing and it's been something on their minds for years now. Many complaints have been risen over Bell's original use of the DPI style of marketing research. Do you really want such companies making a profit off invading your privacy?

Many of these small companies fearing the ruling, such as Teksavvy, have also made the claim that "They could also use this same technology to turn the Internet into a pay-per-website service the same way that TV is a pay-per-channel service. Can you imagine a world where you have to pay to use the Google website to search for information? Then, if you find what you are looking for you may be restricted to the content because your ISP doesn't have a "peering" agreement with said company."

A CRTC order that requires phone companies to give wholesale customers access to faster internet speeds is in limbo as the regulator is still puzzling out whether or not it should be enforced.

"It's still in process," said Denis Carmel, spokesman for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. "This is linked to so many other things and it's so complex."

Peter Nowak of CBC states the following:

"MTS teamed with a number of small ISPs last week to launch The Campaign for Competitive Broadband, an initiative designed to muster public support for the companies' various appeals. The companies say the various CRTC rulings have given big phone companies an advantage in offering internet services and will result in smaller ISPs going out of business, which will lead to degraded services and higher prices. The CRTC has for years given wholesale companies access to phone firms' networks because it has recognized that building such large-scale infrastructure is prohibitively expensive. Parts of those networks were built when phone companies were government-sanctioned monopolies, so they were subsidized by taxpayers.

The regulator has also considered small ISPs an important part of boosting broadband competition, which keeps service levels up and prices low. Bell and Telus have argued that cable companies such as Rogers and Vidéotron provide more than enough competition, and that wholesale customers should not get access to higher speeds because they are offered over newer fibre networks, which were built through large investments of shareholder capital.

Michael Hennessy, head of regulatory affairs for Telus, told CBCNews.ca that giving competitors access to newer infrastructure acts as a disincentive to invest in such networks, which are vital to compete against cable companies.

MTS and Acanac, a small Toronto-based ISP, this week also filed documents with the Federal Court of Appeal to reverse an August ruling by the regulator that would allow Bell to charge wholesale providers extra for the bandwidth they use each month."

As usual, the incumbents are illustrating that resorting to bullying the CRTC is the most effective way to get what they're aiming for.

The CRTC's deadline is coming up this mid December. Those concerned, which we all should be, can click here to visit a movement website which is hoping to stop the CRTC's decision in favour of the Incumbents.

Jafar