Binge On! - And So This is Net Neutrality?

Fri Dec 11 01:58:22 UTC 2015

> On Dec 10, 2015, at 17:49 , Jean-Francois Mezei <jfmezei_nanog at vaxination.ca> wrote:
> 
> On 2015-12-10 13:07, William Kenny wrote:
> 
>> "Verizon is reportedly set to begin testing a sponsored data program that
>> would let companies pay Verizon to deliver online services without using up
>> customers' data plans. 
> 
> In Canada, the Telecom Act 27(2) states:
> 
> Unjust discrimination
> 
> (2) No Canadian carrier shall, in relation to the provision of a
> telecommunications service or the charging of a rate for it, unjustly
> discriminate or give an undue or unreasonable preference toward any
> person, including itself, or subject any person to an undue or
> unreasonable disadvantage.
> 
> 
> 
> So if this Verizon scheme were to happen in Canada, one could challenge
> this if the rates charged to Netflix for 1GB of data are different from
> the rates charged to anyone else, including residential customers as
> this would be an undue preference.

What if the rate charged is the same?

Wouldn’t it still be problematic if:

I pay VZ $15/Gigabyte for all data I use except Netflix which gets billed
automatically to Netflix instead of me?

> Bell Canada's wireless service lost such a challenge earlier this year
> because it ended up giving 10 hours of its own TV service for $4.00
> while the same 10 hours on competing services would end up costing
> something like $40 in normal usage charges.  (Bell Canada is current at
> Federal Court seeking the CRTC's decision be invalidated, stating its TV
> service is "broadcasting" and not subject to the Telecommunications Act
> despite being delivered over a telecommunications service using IP
> technology.

Telephone companies… Any belief that they are communications companies
is purely coincidental to their business model. In fact, they are law firms.

Owen