Seeing red over metered Internet: Financial Post analysis

Jamie Sturgeon describes how electricity became metered and continues:
"The example parallels the polarizing — and now politicized — issue of so-called “usage-based billing (UBB)” of the Internet. UBB is a set of practices Canada’s largest service providers like BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. have implemented allowing them to meter usage and charge for it.
"Their defence is that online traffic is growing at such a clip that tiered systems are now required both to better match finite supply with demand, as well as generate the necessary profits to expand capacity, or grow the grid. Bell, for one, anticipates volume growth on its network of 25% this year over last, it says.
"There is a growing herd, however, that is deeply dissatisfied with the explanation, charging that it is thinly veiled profiteering. A maelstrom of populist rage has flared up in recent weeks after regulators at the CRTC permitted Bell and others to begin imposing metering on their wholesale customers, the last corner of the market where the unlimited Internet could be found. . . "

Click on the title for the full story.

Assurances demanded in BCE takeover of CTV

Stakeholders in Canada's television industry voiced their concerns of BCE Inc.'s proposed takeover of CTV to the country's telecommunications regulator for a third day Thursday. Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau (pictured) is not opposed to the $1.3-billion deal, but stressed at the CRTC hearing that BCE should contribute its share of tangible benefits to the growth of the broadcasting system, which would amount to about $300 million. BCE has said that the benefits contributed when they acquired CTVglobemedia assets in 2000 should exempt them from paying this time.

Journalists return to central Cairo, but threats remain

Live television footage of Cairo’s central Tahrir Square resumed Friday, but it appeared that some foreign journalists were still being detained and fresh reports of attacks on reporters and news organizations suggested that the effort to stifle the flow of news out of Egypt had slowed but not ended.

Click on the title for the full story in The New York Times.

When (commercial) content becomes king

Excellent NPR roundup (linked off headline) of Super Bowl advertising to be seen this Sunday. Stills provided by the advertisers are a nice tease. Above left is something called "One Epic Ride" in which Poseidon looks favorably on the KIA Optima. Right, out to excel over the 2010 Betty White and Abe Vigoda entry, Richard Lewis and Roseanne Barr will reprise the Snickers theme that "You're Not You When You're Hungry". Here's another look at the 2010 Snickers ad with White and Vigoda

Egypt: Now it's all about the reporters

Not to be too cynical, when you aren't sure at all what's happening, its useful to be benignly detained by the police because its so easy to write about.