I cannot find any trace of hope for these meetings.

First, I don’t see the CRTC doing anything when it comes to the throttling that all the internet providers are doing.  I think the big 3 are going to be able to blow enough smoke and mirrors to convince the CRTC that nothing wrong is actually going wrong.  Once again, the big 3 getting on the same page to make more profit, first it was pricing, now it’s backing up their own practices.  They say that they throttle to help other customers maintain a fast speed.  Well first, if there is a concern with providing their customers the service they pay for, clearly their infrastructure is not ready for the service they sell.  If they say you will get a 10 meg service, first I should get that 10 meg service, but second, they shouldn’t have to shave off speeds from other customers.  While they are shaving speeds from the customers, they are using their excess bandwidth to watch out internet habits so they can provide the best ads for us.  Funny, i’m already paying for internet access, yet I’m getting ads from rogers about their super fast internet service. 

These companies are saying they only throttle P2P service because of it’s demand on bandwidth.  Well, aren’t I paying for this bandwidth to be used?  Can I not use a service that I pay for how I like?  If I were downloading illegal software or movies, that’s one thing, but that’s something the police should take care of.  But if I’m hosting an mp3 that I made that I want to share with friends, why are my hands tied?  What if I pay for a online service that allows me to watch movies online, but I get restricted because Rogers views this as ‘excessive use’.  These rules feel like they are being made up on the fly, only created when a profit can be made. 

I understand that these companies have stockholders to answer to, but where does it stop?  When is it time for someone to step forward and say ‘we are on the bottom of the modern world, yet countries look to us as an example’.  We are in the bottom 3 of 30 countries of internet service.  We pay too much, our speeds are weak, and don’t even get me started with customer service.  What makes things worse, is the gap is getting bigger.  Canada just keeps falling behind.

Now, if the CRTC says that throttling is wrong, and the big three has to stop, you think everything will be alright?  If you think so, you are living in a dream world.  These companies will find another way to make their profit.  They will lower the data cap, they will increase the overage charges, they will reduce speeds.  If they can’t do that, there will be a sudden increase in cost to have in home high speed internet.  If they can’t do that, they will monitor packets being sent a received, and they will crack down on internet use.  The major problem with this, is the casual interneter will suffer.  They will be charged more, and they won’t understand why.  They won’t see a change in their service, they will just have to pay more.  What makes it worse, is a majority will accept this, and pay the increase. 

Now, i’m not calling for a riot over this, but people do need to stand up.  Control ultimately falls on the customer, not the providers.  We are the ones who fund their service, we are the one who pays their employees, we are the ones who decide which company is profitable, and which company goes out of business. 

I will be writing letters to my MP, letting him know how criminal Rogers is acting towards me.  That they advertise a product to me, I accepted and started paying for it, yet I don’t get what they promised me.  I will let him know that my privacy feels a little more violated everyday because of the packet monitoring.  How do I know there isn’t a corrupt employee behind the computer, and just eating up all the information that is coming and going from my personal computer.  How do I know that Rogers is actually monitoring my information to make sure I’m not doing anything illegal?  Rather then taking all the information that I go through, and selling it to 3rd parties.  Oh wait, they already are. 

I personally feel that these companies are getting in the way of Canada’s development.  We are a joke of the technological world, and these companies are helping making things worse.  While we aren’t on par with Japan or Korea, we should at least be trying to close the gap.  Like I said earlier, the gap is getting bigger and bigger.  They have uncapped speeds, pretty much unlimited data transfer, and the government openly says that they do restrict access to certain things.  At least those countries are open and honest to it’s people, rather then trying to hide what they do behind smoke and mirrors.  Sure they might lie about media, but that has nothing to do with the internet access. 

If these companies do get away with their practices, I say people join a class action law suit with the false advertisement these companies have been getting away with for far to long.  I refuse to believe that this can continue, companies promising services to the customer, yet never keep their end.  They get away with it by putting a little *, and in the fine print saying that this is how fast it CAN go.  I find it hard to believe it CAN go that fast if I have never seen it that fast.