Independent ISP Responds to CRTC's UBB Decision

dslreports.com

Some context (for non-Canadians):

TekSavvy is one of the leading independent ISPs in Canada.

The CRTC is (roughly) the Canadian version of the FCC.

This price increase is in response to a CRTC judgment that allows Bell to force usage-based billing (UBB) onto its wholesale customers (who are, for the most part, independent ISPs). Before this decision, Bell was unable to sell them packages that took bandwidth used into account - so they could force their own individual customers onto UBB, but not the customers of their wholesale purchasers. This is no longer the case - now they can (and will) charge independents a per-customer fee (like they used to), plus a fee for bandwidth used.

The rates at which they're now able to sell independent are the same as those they charge their own customers, meaning Bell can now effectively set a floor price for the DSL market. Furthermore, independent ISPs can no longer offer unlimited plans.

This is really a worrying level of monopoly by Bell.

Small correction, as I just got around to reading the CRTC decision itself - which is surprisingly clear, considering it comes from a government body - as opposed to just reports:

Bell has to give a 15% discount over the standard retail rates to its wholesale customers (meaning third-party ISPs). They wanted to be able to sell it at retail, but the CRTC decided that would be too bad for competition, so they imposed an arbitrary discount. This still allows them to set a price floor, but a slightly lower one than I originally thought.

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