UBB overturned - Canada no longer biggest internet loser.

The second half of this article reads like it was written by Bell or Rogers.<p>The problem with UBB is not caps, per se, but the fact that the caps were absurdly small and overage fees grossly exceeded the cost of bandwidth. Not to mention that they were introduced at the same time as Netflix launched in Canada, and the providers' own TV-over-IP services were exempt.<p>I dumped my $120/mo Bell Expressvu subscription last month in favor of Netflix and AppleTV. Why should I pay over a thousand dollars a year when I don't watch 98% of what it provides? UBB is just Bell saying 'screw you, we'll get that pound of flesh one way or another.'

Unfortunately for Canadians, I believe it's far from over. Business/Politics are known to make ambit claims [0] that are hard to fully remove as there's a tendency of the well-meaning of compromising is exploited. Examples can easily be seen with Obama administration with the Republicans [1] .<p>Canadians would have to ask for more than a reversal. It might be an overhaul of the organisation due to widespread assumptions of regulatory capture [2] that's serving the needs of monopolistic industries over the public interest.<p>As long the department continues to exist even though they had the sheer audacity to implement it despite public submissions; this issue is not going away.<p>Well done. To me, it's a small step however.<p>[0] <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ambit_claim" rel="nofollow">https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ambit_claim</a><p>[1] <a href="http://i.imgur.com/1ULKE.png" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/1ULKE.png</a><p>[2] <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Regulatory_capture" rel="nofollow">https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Regulatory_ca...</a>

In some ways, I'm envious of Canada's swift reversal of this horrible idea. In the US, we wouldn't have the populist outcry to force action, and even if we did, it would be met with only a token change to the legislation that would succeed at shutting most people up.

<i>Thank God.</i><p>Seriously, this restores some of my faith in bureaucrats.<p>[edit] Interesting information from replies. I'll not be so quick to restore faith in the future.

I'm annoyed that I didn't even know about UBB until earlier today, when I stumbled across Reddit Montreal and saw something about the organization of a protest.<p>Then again I'm getting all my news from here and Slashdot these days - haven't watched any TV in ages.<p>My ISP already posted up new rates conforming to UBB - if it does get overturned, I hope they'll return to the old rates: $29 a month for unlimited bandwidth (soft capped at 100GB). I'm due for renewal at the end of this month, so there's not much time to figure out if I need to be switching to TekSavvy.<p>Somewhat offtopic - I never visited Reddit except when it was linked via posts on Hacker News, and I'd always heard complaints that HN was becoming Reddit, but finding out today that they have forums for my city and other interesting things like a fitness subforum - why did I never go there earlier?

At the risk of being pedantic (and maybe too American), isn't this a <i>promise</i> from politicians that it will be overturned? The title might be masking that a little bit...<p>(The important words in my question being "promise" and "politicians," for hopefully self-evident reasons)

Well if that isn't a ray of sunshine in a turd-sea of announcements regarding the state of the Internet.

This is wonderful news. I was planning to attend my first 'rally' on saturday to protest UBB. I was shocked at how even non techies cared so much about this issue.<p>I hope the monopolies(rogers&#38;bell) don't try less subtle ways to achieve their goals.

I don't understand what happened. Why was the government able to set internet rates at all? Is there a monopoly here or not? Why weren't we (I'm Canadian) paying per usage before -- was it a law or did a flat rate grow from convienience?

Dear Hacker News Canadians:<p>Please continue to write your MPs. This is far from over, and we need to keep on top of it. We can't stop now that it looks like it will be overturned, because Bell will fight back. I urge every one of you to write a letter to your MP (or another one if you already have).<p>If we show any slowing in activity against Bell et al, they will just swoop in and come up with something just as bad.

After an Egyptian protest in internet petition form, I'm glad the Canadian government had some sense in them to hold on to a future in tech innovation in Canada.<p>I can only imagine what kind of immediate effect this would have had on tech startups.

Sometimes you have to ask yourself who are those people in charge? How did they get the job?

I'm very happy, and I hope that a lesson has been learned and that people will not only be more vigilant about caps, but also realize that Canada is far behind when it comes to broadband (speed, prices, competition, etc).

I wish there was UBB that was remotely based on the transfer cost as opposed to some number that a C-Suite jackass picked out to make their profits SOOOOAAAAAAAR.

This has not been overturned yet! I hate misleading titles.

I have to wonder if the whole thing was just a big political maneuver to make the Conservative Party look good right before calling an election.

Woohoo - Australia's back on top!

Considering how bone headed the original caps were, I have a feeling this isn't over.