So, the Conservatives won a majority in the latest Federal Election. What do you think about it? For me, one of the most troubling things about Harper is that he is willing to let internet companies limit customers’ “usage.”
You know that stupid fee you have to pay on your phone if you want access to the internet? It’s like 10 cents to view a page and plans are ridiculously expensive (unless you find an excellent deal) for data phones? Well, Harper wants to initiate that with the Internet.
Yep, that’s right folks. You’re going to be paying more for the same service (and mind you, it hasn’t gotten better throughout the years) and less internet. WHAT IS THIS?! It’s too late to vote for other parties that supported the Internet, but now that the Conservatives are in complete power, we have to do something.
Do you want Shaw to charge you $1 every time you exceed your download/upload limit? I’ve been checking around and it seems like most of the big companies (Shaw, Telus, Rogers, Bell) are going to charge approximately $30 for 10 GB. I don’t know, I usually paid around the same amount for unlimited access to the internet! This means that you can’t upload videos as often as you’d like without exceeding your limit.
Schools will lose even more funding (the CBE instigated wi-fi in schools for free this year), and they’ll probably have to trash the wi-fi idea. And you know how Eau Claire Market and Starbucks have free wi-fi access? I have strong feelings that this will be impossible for them to maintain.
And the worst part of this is that even small companies (Fido, Koodo, etc.) will have to change their plans and how they bill. Since they basically get the bandwidth from the larger companies (like how Fido is a part of Rogers), they’ll raise their prices.
Do you want this to happen? Then we have to do something! Harper has plans. Lots of them. And he was probably waiting for a majority government to push his ideas that might have lost with the minority government. So we as citizens, have to stand up!
Sign the petition here! The government will eventually have to listen to us; it’s a democracy after all (well, that’s debatable). For more information, visit their Facebook page.
AND DON’T FORGET TO SIGN IT! Spam this to all of your friends. Go ask your teachers to ask the class to do it. If your teachers are really flexible and you’re learning how to write business letters, plead them to do something about this. Write letters to Stephen Harper regarding UBB, or do something drastic! Come on people, we can’t let the government push us around!
P.S. Companies will start this roughly in June-July 2011.
