[kwlug-disc] UBB CRTC decision to be reviewed ...

[R. Brent Clements]

More thoughts on this email:

On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 10:29 PM,  <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:
> There is and will be a cost to retrofit from the mid-90's technology to
> 21st century technology.
>
> Presumably, Bell is making attempts to stave that point of serious
> re-investment off as long as they can.

And they are doing this solely for the benefit of their corporate
greed.  Taking steps and passing laws to stave off the need to upgrade
Canada's basic public infrastructure from the out of date technology
of last century to something even remotely current for as long as
possible, and to do it by denying us the full capability of that
existing infrastructure now, infrastructure that was made possible by
huge amounts of public money.  Pass laws to keep our own nation in the
technological stone-age to benefit a few shareholders?

Does none of this make you angry?  You can simply dismiss it by saying
you don't do the things on the Internet that I do, and if I would just
stop doing them I wouldn't have a problem anymore?

If email and online banking were all that the internet was for, we
would not have widely available high-speed internet.  High bandwidth
applications have driven the need for improved internet service just
as a certain bloated operating system has driven the need for more
powerful computer hardware.  Just as population growth is driving the
need for more effective transit.  We have 5Mbit connections now
because a few years ago a lot of people thought it would be cool to
listen to music and post pictures on a website.  We have 10Mbit
connections now because "Oh the Internet is really really
great........  FOR PORN!"

>And staving off the expense if they
> don't have to expend it.

It should not be up to Bell whether or not our infrastructure is
sufficient.  In a truly free market it is the demand that drives
innovation and dictates what an acceptable level of supply is.  In
this simple feudalistic realm that our communication infrastructure
exists in a wealthy entity has paid the rulers of the realm for the
right to own and exploit the land for whatever it can milk it for.
They do it while feeding the lowly serfs that pay whatever taxes suit
the whim of the overlord the absolute minimum required to keep the
bulk of the population from starving, with no regard whatsoever to the
few serfs that will undoubtedly not be able to afford to exist in
their realm?

Bell has, in no uncertain terms (it is written right into the CRTC
tariff proposal), decided that it is more important to keep people
from using bandwidth than it is to ensure that the available bandwidth
be enhanced to meet the need.  If they are to be granted all this
money because their infrastructure may not support the nations future
needs, then where is the requirements that they actually meet the
nation's needs in the future?  Or better yet, if Bell's infrastructure
will not handle the rapidly expanding needs of our nation for Internet
bandwidth, then isn't it time to concede that Bell alone cannot handle
the job on its own, and take away its ability to remove the companies
that can help?  If UBB is intended to limit access to a potentially
finite resource, then it should be given to an entiy with the mandate
to spend it on the infrastructure, not pay dividends to shareholders.
Perhaps invest that several tens of millions of dollars a month into
the development of a new publicly- owned national backbone.  Then let
Bell keep its aging network.

I don't think I have ever had so much to say on any topic anywhere.  I
love this country.  I want to live in a democratic country with
freedom of choice and a free market.  I know that maintaining this is
not easy, and certain concessions will always have to be made to keep
things operational. I am certainly not anti-corporate.  But I want to
live in a country where no organization--social, religious or
corporate--has the power to hijack my rights, my financial security,
or my oportunities for growth.  And with telecomunications of all
sorts in this country, that is how we are going.  There are countries
in this world where a single corporation owns virtually all
telecommunications, entertainment, information media, and medical
services (yes, the same corporation that controls the TV and the
phones also owns the hospitals).  I do not want to live in one of
those.  I believe in open competition.  Virtually all newspapers in
this country are owned by one corporation right now.

And then there is the internet--the most disruptive technology we have
ever known.

It doesn't make it hard for musicians to make money.  It makes it hard
for the music industry to control the musicians.  If one tenth of one
percent of the people who hear a band on the Internet go see them play
and buy a bumper sticker, they have made more money than they would if
no-one ever hears them play. The blank CD tariff made writing,
recording, duplicating and selling your own music more expensive,
because now you are paying money to Anne Murray, Celine Dion and
Nickleback every time you buy a blank CD to put your music on.

It doesn't make it hard for TV stations to make money.  It makes it
hard for television carriers to exploit TV stations for money.  Tuning
into a TV station broadcasting from a tower across town is exactly the
same as browsing a website and clicking on the link to a live stream
of your station on the Internet.  But now the Cable and Satellite TV
companies can't grab your signal for free and make their own
commercial revenue by cutting out the commercials that you sold and
putting in ones that they sold.

This is how UBB impacts our culture.  It takes away all of the
innovative counter-culture and forces us to make due with what someone
else deems to be mainstream-acceptable.

There is no reason whatsover why long distance calls should cost so
much more than local calls.  Voip kinda proved that.

Sure a lot of our economy is based on businesses that do nothing but
artificially inflate the value of our culture and lifestyle to make a
living for themselves (and often more than just a living.)  It is time
to say thank you for all that you have done, but we realize now that
we don't actually need you, and please close the door on your way out.

Damn this got long.  I gotta start blogging this from now on.