Since the UBB topic is really starting to heat up I thought that I’d post a few good links for people that are interested in figuring out what “UBB” is, and what it means for Canada.
What is “UBB”?
UBB stands for Usage Based Billing.
Why should you care?
The CRTC recently passed a decision forcing all independent DSL and Cable Internet providers to substantially match incumbent (like Bell) usage rate caps. This will influence all of our internet service packages. In the past you the customer had an option to go to a Internet reseller to get competitive prices and bandwidth caps. This ruling allowed Bell and Rogers to force the resellers to impose a bandwidth limit on all of their customers.
This is a major push from Bell and Rogers to force customers to stop moving away from the traditional satellite/cable structure that has kept them in business. Some people see this as a direct response to new streaming media companies like NetFlix coming to Canada with a streaming plan that was affordable and allowing a lot of casual TV watchers to cancel their satellite/cable subscriptions.
This change will affect almost every aspect of the modern family. Surfing the internet, streaming videos from YouTube, checking email, using iTunes, playing online games and even VOIP programs like Skype that allow you to save money and keep in touch with friends and family around the works. If you are going to use a service that doesn’t belong to your ISP, then they are going to force you to pay a premium.