Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement has told the press that he will overturn the decision to allow "usage-based billing" with which the CRTC (Canada's telcoms regulator) gifted the telcoms industry. Canada's heavily concentrated telcoms companies have long used dirty tricks (secret filtering and throttling) to punish customers for using services that compete with their own, such as VoIP and video on demand, and Usage-Based Billing would have raised the cost for using these services sky-high.
The CRTC's controversial decision to substantially increase Internet costs to Canadians will be reversed, the Toronto Star has learned.
"The CRTC should be under no illusion — the Prime Minister and minister of Industry will reverse this decision unless the CRTC does it itself," a senior Conservative government official said Wednesday.
"If they don't reconsider we will reverse their decision."
The promise to reverse the ruling comes as CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein is scheduled to explain the decision Thursday before the House of Commons industry committee.
Ottawa to reverse CRTC decision on Internet billing
(via Reddit)
