A few days ago I reported that North America is part of the technology Third World. We have some of the slowest internet access at some of the highest prices in the world, some of the lowest adoption rates and highest service plans for cell phone service, and a new charge on incoming text messages threatens to leave Canada without text messaging. Well, it seems that the peasants are growing restless, and they’re tired of living in the Third World! This is the courageous story of how the people are fighting back against the powerful monopolies who control our access to technology.
The day after I wrote that post, an article appeared in the Ottawa Citizen about Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s demand that Bell and Telus explain why they will be charging 15 cents per incoming text message. I had estimated that an average text message is about 100 bytes of data, therefor the bandwidth required to handle the entire country’s text messages is about 4.2 GB, or roughly the bandwidth that I’m allowed to use per day with my 7 megabit “high speed” internet access, for which I pay $1.60 per day. My ISP apparently makes a profit on that $1.60 a day, so surely I must be horribly incorrect in my estimate of Canada’s text messaging bandwidth if Bell and Telus expect to be paid 15 cents for each of those 45 million messages per day, or $6.75 million. But, there it is on page A10.
Wireless technology expert Ken Chase said he doesn’t accept the rationale from Bell and Telus that the volume of text messages places great demands on the networks. The consultant with the Toronto-based firm Heavy Computing said that while 45.3 million text messages sounds like a lot, the amount of space this takes up on a network is related costs to a telecom company are miniscule.
A text message sent via mobile phone can be no more than 160 characters, and each character is about a byte. If 45 million text messages are sent throughout Canada every day and each message is about 100 characters, this totals 4.5 gigabytes.
Source: Ottawa Citizen, July 10, 2008
So, there you have it. I said 4.2 GB, and wireless technology expert Ken Chase says 4.5 GB. I couldn’t have been much closer than that, could I? It’s simply a fact that text messages cost telecom companies almost nothing, and the idea of charging people any amount for receiving them, especially spam, is outrageous. Bravo to Mr. Chase, and the Ottawa Citizen, for drawing the public’s attention to this nonsense.
Also, the same day that I wrote that post, which was critical of Rogers for charging $60 to $150 per month for the iPhone, Rogers bowed to public pressure and lowered the price! Rogers will now offer a $30 per month plan with a 6 GB bandwidth limit. Voice plans start at $20 per month, and the system access fee is $6.95 a month, so you can now have a 3G iPhone with 6 GB of bandwidth for as little as $56.95 per month, plus tax. There’s still no unlimited option, but at least 6 GB is a reasonable amount of data, and it will allow the iPhone to be used as Apple intended: to surf the internet and watch movies and listen to music. Don’t get too excited, though. The offer expires on August 31.
What’s interesting is that, even with the lower rates, Canada is still the second most expensive country in the world to own an iPhone.
Despite the better prices and service terms temporarily being offered by Rogers Communications Inc. for Apple Inc.’s iPhone 3G, Canadians will still be paying nearly the highest overall cost for the device in the world.
Rogers announced its new rates on Wednesday but has not yet published them on its website.
According to CBCNews.ca’s iPhone iNdex, which compares basic service plans from the 27 carriers in 21 countries that have announced pricing for the device’s launch on Friday, Canadians who buy the device before Aug. 31 will be faced with a total minimum cost of $2,176 US over the course of the three-year deal they must sign with Rogers. That is second only to the $2,554 US customers of Vodafone will pay in Italy with their two-year service agreement.
Source: CBC.ca, July 10, 2008 Link
You know, I could own and operate a car for three years for $2176. It would probably have to be at least 15 years old, and it would have to be small enough to have very low fuel consumption, and I wouldn’t be able to go on long road trips. Oh, right, then there’s insurance. Okay, maybe three years is a bit of a stretch, but you see my point. If you’re a young person, would you rather have an iPhone or a car? The choice is yours.
Anyway, Canadians aren’t the only ones who are fighting to get out of the technology Third World. The battle is also heating up in the United States where, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wants to take action against Comcast for interfering with web traffic such as BitTorrent downloads.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, staking out new regulatory ground on the Internet, said yesterday that he would seek an enforcement action against Comcast Corp. for slowing down heavy Internet users who were downloading movies and other large data files.
The Philadelphia company used “too blunt an instrument” in managing its network and didn’t adequately disclose its bandwidth restrictions to subscribers, Martin said. “You can’t limit consumers that way.”
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, July 10, 2008
The FCC is finally standing up for net neutrality in the United States, while the debate has barely begun in Canada. At least Google threw its weight behind the pro-neutrality side. I can only hope that Canada manages to prevent ISPs from arbitrarily deciding which applications and services get to have bandwidth and which ones don’t. Where do we live, Communist China? Yes, I know, I lose respect for almost any argument when someone compares this land of the free to a Communist dictatorship, but I stand by this analogy. China has censors who decide what websites its citizens are allowed to visit, and this is essentially the same thing. Bell thinks that it has the right to decide what you can and can’t do with the internet, and that’s an idea that is so far divorced from reality that it could scarcely have been proposed in a nation like ours. That is exactly the kind of heavy-handed control that China imposes on its citizens, and I won’t stand for it in this country.
So, the news is less bleak than it was. There’s a chance that Jim Prentice may be able to do something about the text messaging fees, net neutrality may yet come to North America, and the iPhone may someday become affordable in Canada.
[...] is the original: The verdict is on Super Mario Galaxy: it’s a game! Tags: archive, beyond-classic, beyond-classic-dos-games, classic, criteria, dos, entries, games, [...]