The World is Watching

YouTube rankings of a recent video where George Stromobolopolous explains usage-based billing, demonstrate that the world is watching these developments. There’s a reason for that: Canada is a petri dish for big telecom companies to experiment in their efforts to take back control of communications. They tried to do this by discriminating against online services through “traffic management” but we successfully pushed back.

Usage-based billing is another example of the ongoing attempts by telecoms to reclaim control of communications.

The big telecom plan

Big telecoms have plans that are bigger than just adding new fees to our bills:

1. Make Internet access more expensive by imposing usage-based billing (charging per byte).

2. Slow down online services and content that competes with their own.

3. Create and push consumers toward a controlled, privately owned version of the Internet through TV, which will prioritize services of their choosing.

Be ready…

Watch out for big telecom shills in the media and in online forums. They are hoping to muddy the waters by creating divisions among Canadians. If we notice a journalist becoming a mouthpiece for the telecom industry, I suggest we just recognize it for what it is and move on. What they want to do is create noise that will confuse Canadians about what is really going on and what our interests are. Let’s not let them rile us up, that’s their goal. We don’t need them.

The telecom industry and their allies will likely try to discredit the Stop the Meter campaign, and OpenMedia.ca. This is a distraction tactic. If they start to engage in this type of activity it means we are winning. They may also launch a massive ad campaign using their exorbitant profits (with some irony). In the face of this, please just step up your efforts to raise awareness among your fellow Canadians. Ultimately it’s all of you who are making a difference here.

We’re hearing a lot of talk online about rallies, and that’s exciting! We’re talking with some of our allies about what we might pull together with the help of all of you. If you want to get involved locally, or with OpenMedia.ca’s work more generally, sign up to the Digital Action Team. We’re setting up some resources that will help people organize events and, more importantly, further decentralize our campaign.

A note on tactics

If you plan to do something locally I recommend you use the name/tagline “Stop the Meter”. The word “meter” is easier to grasp for those who are not already informed about UBB or usage-based billing. It’s also an easy word for the media to use when covering our activities (the piece by George Stromobolopolous is a good example). This may seem like a minor point, but it’s important in the face of what the other side is no doubt planning. Find some campaign resources here: http://openmedia.ca/meter/resources

We’ve definitely lost control of the Stop the Meter campaign, and we like that. We’re working overtime to find innovative ways to make Stop the Meter even more community driven and decentralized – this is an advantage we have over hierarchical, slow moving, telecom giants.

Taking back control of the Internet is truly historic. We’re at more than 110,000 signatures (historic itself) on our petition now. Let’s keep going – our numbers are our strength: http://stopthemeter.ca

For the Internet,

Steve

Support this campaign by making a small donation to our Stop the Meter Fund: http://openmedia.ca/drive (this donation will cost you a lot less than UBB)





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