Netflix Exec: Canada's Caps On Internet Use "Almost A Human Rights Violation"

GigaOM:

Low broadband caps in Canada put that country close to third-world countries, and overage charges almost amount to human rights violations: Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos blasted broadband caps and usage-based-billing employed by Canadian ISPs during an investor event Thursday afternoon.

Read the whole story at GigaOM

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Comments

[Realist2011]

12:47 PM on 09/16/2012

Welcome to the future of internet in America. Already Verizon and AT&T cap your "usage" before charging you more. It's not that low...yet. But that's their long term goal. We're moving backwards in technology.

When cell phones came out, you were charged by the minute for every minute or fraction thereof. As competition increased, the charges were reduced and unlimited plans emerged. Now, we're going the other way.

As AT&T and Verizon work to effectively reduce competition, they're starting to charge more, for less. I'm with Time Warner. They just raised my bill by $10 per month for the very same lousy service.

Unfortunately, greed trumps everything. Until the FCC puts internet access under strict regulation, what we pay for what we get will continue to climb dramatically. Internet access should be treated as, and regulated as a "utility" because essentially that's what it is. It's necessary to do just about anything in our world today, find a job, learn, interact with government, etc..

Don't hold your breath.