Saturday, February 5, 2011

5-10% of internet users suffer from "internet-addiction"



LOL OMG! Have you guys discovered the internet??? It's so great! I could, like literally, spend days on here.
Ok, now seriously, if you tallied all the hours I have spent on the internet since I first got dial-up in grade 4, in the same amount of time I probably could have learned a new language or mastered the violin...
The political debate right now, is the CRTC's ruling to apply bandwidth caps to users, this decision was then rejected by the Conservatives. Currently, internet providers like Bell and Rogers can offer (almost) unlimited internet usage to their users for a set price. Sort of like the dinner buffet at Sun Sun's... if they served internet. Under the proposal by the CRTC, led by Konrad Von Fickenstein, it would be mandatory that internet users would only have a set limit of internet usage a month, and if they go beyond it they would pay extra; this is known as Usage Based Billing. Sort of like Sun Sun's 2am hot table, 2 items only, 1 price. Service bought directly from Bell and Rogers is already capped.

Smaller internet providers (like Tek-Savvy), currently provide unlimited bandwidth, in order to remain competitive with Bell and Roger's (who currently offer bandwidth caps, although the cap is still pretty high). How do small Internet Service Providers work? They buy a big chunk of internet bandwidth, at a wholesale price, and then sell it to you at a cheaper price. Konrad Fickenstein, argues the current set-up for internet usage can penalize small internet users by lumping them in with heavy down-loaders (netflix, torrents, xbox live...).

The CRTC's decision to require usage based billing and eliminate unlimited bandwidth usage was struck down by the Conservative government. Bell and Rogers also asked the CRTC for a 60day delay in the rulings. Tony Clement, industry minister, stated, "Regardless of the outcome of the CRTC review, this ruling will not be implemented".

This issue mainly affects people who sign up with smaller internet service providers that specifically advertise unlimited bandwidths for a set price (around 500 000 Canadians).

In case you didn't know what bandwidth is, it is how much information you are sending/receiving over the internet. If you download a lot of stuff, like watch movies on your computer, play online games, or download torrents, your computer is downloading a lot of information.

Its a complicated issue, here's some links with some more information:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/start/mark-evans/usage-based-billing-could-slam-small-firms/article1893543/

1 comment:

  1. I'm not sure i understand. What are you proposing would be the benefits of internet capping?

    ReplyDelete