There has been a lot of talk about usage-based billing (UBB) in Canada the past couple of weeks, starting when the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (the CRTC) announced that they were going to introduce caps on bandwidth and essentially force internet service providers (ISPs) to charge those who go over the caps.

Along with all the discussion, there’s been lots of road construction/traffic analogies that try to explain the decision in more ‘real world’ terms — this article even suggests that UBB will somehow allow ISPs to free up cash to invest in better infrastructure to support all of us driving “the Hummer versions of bandwidth vehicles” (according to the article). Unfortunately, reality is somewhat different.

What UBB really allows, is for ISPs (and in some cases, even forces ISPs that don’t want to) to charge Canadians more for something they already provide. What Bell has asked for is essentially the ability to charge more money for what they have (in most cases contractually) signed up to provide their customers. All with the nebulous promise from Bell that all this cash will be turned around and invested into infrastructure. Continue reading »