Microsoft has released a research paper: “You’re Capped!” Understanding the Effects of Bandwidth Caps on Broadband Use in the Home [pdf, 362 KB] that is an important read. Its abstract says:

Bandwidth caps, a limit on the amount of data users can upload and download in a month, are common globally for both home and mobile Internet access. With caps, each bit of data consumed comes at a cost against a monthly quota or a running tab. Yet, relatively little work has considered the implications of this usage-based pricing model on the user experience. In this paper, we present results from a qualitative study of households living with bandwidth caps. Our findings suggest home users grapple with three uncertainties regarding their bandwidth usage: invisible balances, mysterious processes, and multiple users. We discuss how these uncertainties impact their usage and describe the potential for better tools to help monitor and manage data caps. We conclude that as a community we need to cater for users under Internet cost constraints.

The paper opens with a recognition that ISPs are looking at usage sensitive pricing models because they are faced with “increased network congestion from both the rise in bandwidth intensive applications and the growing number of Internet users”. The study observes that caps exist in countries such as “Australia, Canada, Turkey, South Africa, the U.K., and the U.S.” and are not restricted to home broadband but are also applied to mobile internet. The paper suggests that the pricing model is likely to persist.

we argue that it is time to re-examine the assumption that for end-users the only cost associated with network use is speed.

The study concludes that the IT community might want to rethink assumptions about unlimited bandwidth in the design of applications and devices. The paper is a refreshing contribution to the discussion on usage sensitive pricing models.

 

Although TELUS says it is “fully compliant with foreign ownership restrictions”, the Globalive / Wind Mobile application to review that compliance raises some very interesting issues.

First of all, now that the application has been filed with the Commission, it is not possible for TELUS to have any ex-parte discussions with Commissioners to discuss the ownership or proposed restructuring. The CRTC was quite strict about avoiding meetings with Globalive during its 2009 ownership review; there is no reason to believe that the Commission would be more lenient with the TELUS review.

As such, TELUS will need to prove its compliance in what could be a lengthy public proceeding, especially if Globalive succeeds in having the CRTC conduct a Type 3 or 4 review.

According to the news report, Globalive is claiming that 48% of TELUS’ voting shares are held with non-Canadian addresses. If that is accurate, that number is about 50% too high; only one third of voting shares can be held by non-Canadians according to the bright line test set out in the definition of a “qualified corporation” in the Ownership Regulations.

It becomes interesting to contemplate how such a situation could be remedied, if the CRTC determines that there is, in fact, a problem. How would you fix this?

Your comments, as always, are welcome.

Wind Mobile has asked the CRTC to review TELUS ownership to ensure compliance with foreign ownership limits, according to a story on Bloomberg.

Simon Lockie, the chief regulatory officer of Globalive is quoted in the story saying:

WIND is bringing this application because TELUS’s complicated and rarely-used measures for controlling the level of foreign ownership of its publicly-traded voting shares, along with its recent proposal to restructure its share capital by converting its non-voting shares into voting shares, raises complex and novel issues that have not been dealt with by the CRTC to date.

The last phrase is key to triggering a full public proceeding for the review of TELUS’ ownership In Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2009-428, Canadian ownership and control review policy, the CRTC wrote:

the Commission will hold an oral, public, multi-party proceeding (Type 4 review) where an ownership or governance structure is of a complex or novel nature, such that in the Commission’s view its determination will hold precedential value to industry players and the general public

Recall that in 2009, TELUS challenged Wind Mobile’s eligibility to operate, triggering a lengthy set of CRTC proceedings including an oral hearing, and leading to the CRTC ruling against Wind Mobile, Wind successfully turning to cabinet and a subsequent supreme court appeal (that the Court refused to hear).

The federal government’s liberalization of the foreign ownership rules, about to go into effect, do not apply to Bell, TELUS or Rogers.

So much for a quiet summer.

It’s like deja vu all over again.

Today, Cogeco Data Services is launching a new downtown data centre, complementing facilities it already has in the west end of the city and in Barrie (about 100 kms north). According to Cogeco Data’s president, Tony Ciciretto,

The trend has been to move data centres outside the downtown core because real estate is at a premium in major economic hubs like Toronto. But Canada’s largest business district has unique needs including access to unparalleled speed and the ability to access facilities quickly for maintenance activities or in the event of an emergency. Even brief delays for a financial or business transaction can mean the difference of millions of dollars and that means that customers of our downtown facility will have a distinct advantage in meeting and exceeding the extreme latency and proximity requirements of the business sector.

The new data centre provides access to Cogeco Data’s optical network that blankets much of the GTA and beyond, enabling 10 Gbps connectivity. With more organizations moving from on-site data services environments to cloud computing, companies frequently need both local and remote facilities depending on the business needs and regulatory requirements.

Earlier this month, during The 2012 Canadian Telecom Summit, Cologix had an Open House for its new data centre and co-location facility at 905 King Street West in downtown Toronto.

Thanks to CPAC, there is on-demand access available to a number of sessions from The 2012 Canadian Telecom Summit.

Here is the link to

• The Regulatory Blockbuster

and links to keynote addresses by

• Rob Bruce of Rogers
• Len Katz of the CRTC
• Bernard Lord of CWTA
• Chris O’Neill of Google
• Kirstine Stewart of CBC

Other portions will be available soon – I will update this post as we learn of more video on demand from The Canadian Telecom Summit.