Image via WikipediaMONTREAL — Independent Internet service providers contribute significantly to network congestion, and the price they pay to large telecom companies should reflect that, BCE Inc. told a regulatory hearing on Monday.
Bell executive Mirko Bibic said wholesale independent service providers make up 17 per cent of users in Ontario and Quebec and drive 29 per cent of total traffic on Bell’s network in those provinces.
"No single user or wholesale customer is the cause of congestion," Bibic told the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
"But clearly, wholesale users contribute a disproportionate share of total traffic, and by extension, congestion," said Bibic, senior vice-president of regulatory and government affairs at BCE.
The federal regulator is reviewing how BCE’s Bell Canada and others charge independent Internet providers for the use of their networks.
CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told the hearing the commission is only looking at wholesale prices independent Internet providers pay for network use and not retail rates that are charged to their consumers.
"We believe that retail rates (i.e. the prices charged by ISPs to consumers) are best set by the market," he said via webcast. "The issue has not and will not be part of the commission’s considerations."
Animator and cinematographer Grayden Laing said usage-based billing will result in Canadians watching fewer online videos of all types and returning to more standard TV viewing.
"If these prices go up, people are going to be less likely to watch original content and they will return to the things that they know."
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