You've probably heard lots on the news over the last few days about UBB, the decision by the CRTC to significantly change the way Internet access is delivered in Canada.

While I'm thrilled that this issue has finally hit mass media, it remains frustrating that so many people just don't get it. It's especially evident when you listen to mainstream news outlets try to get into the debate.

So I took the liberty of writing about this from the perspective of the average man, and how it impacts every family. You should be paying $7.99 for your TV service, you're not, and what just happened with UBB ensures that you never will. (With a reference to our very own and beloved Hugh's analysis on true cost).

Please give it a read, pass to your non-technical friends and family, and of course I'd be very interested to hear your feedback.

http://pnear.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/100-milkubb-controversy-in-plain-english/

-Pete

While I see your point, we will never pay only $7.99 for TV in Canada for one important reason I didn't see mentioned in your blog post... and that is...

In Canada we allow the Sat/Cable companies to own the networks!

Other then that, I really enjoyed your post.

Cheers

We are focusing a lot on Internet usage, but the same argument holds for other services. Rogers will charge you say $15 for the movie pack. Does it really cost them $15 /month to provide you that service? Is there any additional cost incurred by Rogers, other than perhaps license fees to the content owners.

Text messaging in the US. If you send text messages from your cell phone while roaming in the US, you will be charge $0.50 / text. How does this charge compare with the cost of providing the service. While on the subject of roaming, Bell will charge $5/MB for data transfer while roaming in the US, while they charge only $0.02/MB for going over your limit while in Canada. Talk about markups.

I say, like many others, that we pay for Telecom services like we for electricity or gas. We pay a fee for the connectivity to our homes. Then we pay per GB of usage, at say $0.05 / GB.

That will never happen either. Rogers and Bell have pegged their average cost for TV at $60. They want that $60 whether you watch TV on their TV service or use another service over their network. If you do both, they want twice as much. The same goes for movies. They have pegged PPV and VOD at $4-$6 per movie. They want that money whether you watch a movie on their service or use another service and their network. That's why UBB charges are pegged so high. It's all about protecting revenue streams and destroying the competition. There is too much concentration of ownership and not enough competition to affect the broadcasting oligopoly (http://www.investorwords.com/3404/oligopoly.html) that exists in Canada.