<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Bell, a major telco in Canada is proposing a new pricing model that would enable independent ISPs to purchase network capacity in bulk as opposed to the unfavorable usage based billing structure currently being reviewed by the Federal government.\r\n\r\nTo bring you up to speed, the usage based billing (UBB) controversy has been heating up over the last few months after the CRTC had announced its support of a UBB pricing in Canada. Canucks were completely outraged because the CRTC\u2019s decision meant that ISPs would no longer be able to offer consumers unlimited Internet packages.\r\n\r\nAlmost half a million Canadians swiftly turned to the government for help by signing a petition to stop Telco price gouging. Tony Clement, Industry minister and Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister quickly responded via Twitter\u00A0 telling the Canadian public that the government would be looking into possibly overturning the CRTC\u2019s decision.\r\n\r\nOn Wednesday, the Financial Post published an article written by Mirko Bibic, a senior vice-president of Bell\u2019s regulatory and government affairs department. Within the article cleverly titled \u201CBell now agrees with small ISPs\u201D he explains that Bell hopes to implement a new pricing model for wholesale Internet services, which would enable ISPs to purchase network capacity based on the needs of its entire customer base.\r\n\r\nThis would eliminate the requirement for Independent ISPs to pay-per-customer.\u00A0 Bell\u2019s calling the new pricing structure aggregated volume pricing, or AVP.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWith AVP, Independent ISP\u2019s such as TekSavvy and Acanac would have the flexibility and freedom to offer unlimited Internet packages without being forced to charge its customers with \u201Coverage\u201D fees. Bell\u2019s suggesting that the aggregated volume pricing should cost $200 for 1 TB and it\u2019s hoping to charge 29.5 cents in overages per GB.\r\n\r\nBell has basically repackaged UBB with a new name however it\u2019s good news for ISP and consumers alike -- no caps, no overages, no over priced packages.\r\n\r\nHot on the heels of this news, Bell has just announced that it will be nailing its customers with an extra $3 on monthly fees for select Bell Fibe TV and Bell Internet services, effective May 2011.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s almost comical that Bell would make this move amidst the UBB fiasco and considering it\u2019s now making it possible for its competitors to offer \u201Cunlimited packages\u201D it seems that Bell is literally driving customers away."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/ca/2011/03/31/bell-announces-good-news-for-isps-and-bad-news-for-its-customers/>