Canada’s national telecom regulator was formally asked to stop imposing a controversial usage-based Internet pricing regime, on the same day that Silicon Valley powerhouse Netflix Inc. expressed serious concerns about its future in Canada. “[usage-based billing] is something we’re definitely worried about,” Reed Hastings, chief executive of the web-based video streaming provider, was quoted by the Canadian Press as saying in a conference call on Wednesday; during which his company announced more than 20-million people now subscribe to Netflix. “It is potentially a significant negative for Netflix,” Mr. Hastings said.
Also on Wednesday, Vaxination Informatique, a consulting firm based in Montreal, Quebec, filed a petition requesting the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to repeal the first UBB decision, 2010-802. That ruling, passed last October, mandated the usage-based billing (UBB) model which requires Canadian Internet service providers (ISPs) to charge customers extra for exceeding monthly download “caps,” referring to arbitrarily established monthly download limits.
“At this time, [gateway access] service is still required to ensure there is competition in the retail ISP business and prevent formation of a duopoly,” reads an excerpt of the petition. “However, with the UBB tariffs, the Commission has moved in the opposite direction by granting incumbents full power to impose unified UBB rates on the market.”
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