Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Internet in Canada

In Canada, a ruling was implemented in Canada that will affect millions of people in Canada. That is, the people who use internet. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruled that they "will lead to lower download limits and higher rates as those who exceed their pre-set limits are charged for additional bandwidth". This ruling basically tries to deter and discourage people from using the internet too much. It puts a cap on how much gigabytes can be used and if people want to exceed that use, which many people do, they have to pay $5 or more extra to increase their internet use. Many people are against this ruling in Canada. An online petition was issued and over 200,000 people already signed it to over turn this internet restricting rule. Along with that, Canada's own Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, even showed a great disliking to this ruling. Personally, I was pretty surprised when I read this. Nowadays with such a reliance on the Internet for things like games, news, facebook, many of us probably exceed the gigabyte limit set for Canadians. I hope this doesn't happen in the United States. Personally, I think this rule is unfair. People who use the internet more often do compensate by paying more. There shouldn't be a restriction because so many people do rely on heavy usage of the internet and this ruling could drastically affect them. But what do you guys think? Do you think this just shows how we have too much reliance on technology and it's a good idea to cut back? Or do you think this ruling is unfair?

3 comments:

Aaron Oppenheim said...

Today in Canada, the Canadian government in Canada decided that in Canada, Canadian companies cannot charge Canadian citizen over Canadian gigabyte limit in Canada. The Canadian ruling has been rescinded. In Canada.

Michael Nakamura said...

Thank you for emphasizing where this ruling was enacted. I almost forgot after the title, but the first sentence really helped reinforce it. Just kidding, I love you, Chris. I believe that this ruling is absurd and unfair to those heavy internet users in Canada. I'm kind of shocked to see that a ruling like this was passed. It's safe to say the modern world relies on technology. Why put a higher price on it and discourage it?

nichole kwee said...

First of all, I don't know how this ruling could have any legal standing since it is an obvious obstruction to personal freedom without any excuse like security. But still, this is an interesting idea. It is kind of gross to me how long my brother spends on the computer playing computer games and he definitely would spend his time differently if he had to pay for his excess. On the other hand again, this is unfair for people who need to be on the internet for work or school. I am kind of in two minds- I think this ruling is unfair, but I think it is a good idea to cut back too.