Bandwidth caps. We all love ‘em. Wait, no, we hate ‘em. Sorry. But even as AT&T gears up to impose bandwidth caps on its DSL subscribers, it should be pointed out that it’s hardly the only ISP that does so. You might even say that other countries have it worse.

Look at the UK, home to foul-mouthed footballers and giant Michael Jackson statues. BT’s lowest tier tops out at 10GB per month, while its top tier, BT Infinity Option 2, offers “unlimited” bandwidth, but the fine print notes that once you fly past 300GB the company reserves the right to slow down your download speeds.

Virgin has similar plans, but it goes to great lengths to say that it’s unlimited plans are truly unlimited—until you run afoul of its acceptable use policies.

On to Australia, home to perhaps the world’s silliest content ratings board. They’re basically living in the stone age down there. The top tier there taps out at 200GB, and after you reach that you’re connection is slowed down to 256kbps.

“I’ll never use 200GB per month!” you might shout. (Why are you shouting?) And maybe so—for now. All it takes is a few Steam downloads, perhaps a lossless album here and there, and you could very quickly find yourself brushing up against that kind of cap. That’s why Netflix recently lowered its default bitrate for Canadian users, so as to help prevent people from mistakenly going overboard.

You can always stick to shiny plastic discs if all of this bandwidth nonsense has you down.

Netflix may be forced to pay additional fees in order stay in business in Canada. The country’s Radio-Television Commission, the same entity responsible for that usage-based billing scare, is being pressured by traditional media companies (the likes of Rogers and Bell, of course) to levy the same local content production fee on Netflix that they have to pay. Needless to say, this really isn’t a black-and-white issue.

Traditional media companies in Canada pay a fee that, in effect, subsidizes the production of local, Canadian content. Since it’s often cheaper for these companies to merely import American programming, thereby sidelining Canadian studios (read: Canadian culture), Canada figured, “OK, let’s charge the Bells of the country a fee in order to ensure the development of Canadian programming.”

Netflix, despite being a “broadcaster,” albeit a new type of broadcaster, doesn’t have to pay this fee. And because it doesn’t have to pay this fee it can charge less for its services—CDN$8 per month for streaming, as it were.

Now the question becomes, should Netflix be forced to pay the fee? Let’s put aside the question “should the fee exist in the first place?” since, well, it does exist, and its existence isn’t up for debate right now. Maybe tomorrow if you have the time.

Look at it from Bell’s perspective. It provides a service—television and movies and whatnot, right to your TV—that, in its estimation, really isn’t too different from that of Netflix. They just so happen to travel over different wires, and theirs isn’t necessarily on-demand. It’s not too hard to understand why Bell (et al.) would be upset that Netflix, which just so happens to be gaining in popularity, doesn’t have to pay the fee—the fee, which, coincidentally, was implemented to help Canadians and Canadian companies.

Now look at Netflix. Is it a broadcaster? Not in the traditional sense of the word, no. Netflix is the new kid on the block, and it’s showing the old guard how you can deliver the same content that people want to see but cheaper.

(Then again, Netflix didn’t have to pay to lay down the broadband infrastructure in the first place. You could say it’s merely piggy-backing off the work of others.)

Representatives from the media companies will meet with the CRTC tomorrow to discuss whether or not Netflix should pay the fee.

Hopefully we can have a civil discussion about this, because, again, both sides would appear to have valid arguments.

“Please note that we have identified an issue that may cause Internet usage shown on the site to be overstated in some cases. In order to ensure we provide reliable information to all our clients, the usage tracker will be unavailable while we resolve the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience.” And Bell Canada wonders why so many people hated the idea of usage-based billing?

Not that it matters now, with the Canadian government having since backed off the idea, but the above admission should serve as a warning to usage-based billing: it patently doesn’t work. How can you charge someone by the gigabyte when you have no idea how many gigabytes they’ve downloaded? It boggles the mind.

You’ll recall that the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission had announced plans to implement a usage-based billing regime for the country’s ISPs. In a perfect world (from the perspective of the ISPs) you would pay X-Amount per month for Internet access, then you’d be charged for every gigabyte past your allotted tiny bandwidth limit. It would have made using things like Netflix and Steam all but impossible in Canada, with dire implications for the future of the country’s Internet competitiveness.

Then Canada flipped out, causing the government to realize what a silly idea usage-based billing truly was.

And then there was that Bell Canada admission, made to a newspaper there last week. A sort of, “You know how we wanted to charge you by the gigabyte? It turns out we had no accurate way of measuring that! Oops!”

This was said during the height of the usage-based billing debate (not that there was much of a debate), but how about instead of figuring out how to artificially limit people’s downloads you instead try to figure out how to increase bandwidth capacity? Stop claiming that all these evil downloaders are causing the ruination of everything. It’s not like Internet-based services are going away any time soon.

Oh, wait, there’s no immediate payoff to that, right. Gotcha.

Canada’s Internet innovation-killing usage-based billing scheme may already be dead in the water. The Toronto Star says the decision has been made to reverse the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s plan to implement the controversial billing method, which would have led to a situation where people there could have expected to pay up to CDN$2.35 per gigabyte. The CRTC is expected to make its case in front of the House of Commons later today.

The country’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, had asked for a review of the CRTC decision, and senior government sources last night made it known that the government would not abide by said decision. (The CRTC, like the FTC here in the U.S., is an independent agency, but its decisions are subject to government review.)

“I remain very concerned by the #UBB decision of the CRTC & look forward to my review being completed ASAP,” tweeted Tony Clement, Canada’s information minister. When asked, also via Twitter, if he would reverse the decision even if the CRTC refused to cooperate, Clement left no wiggle room: “True. CRTC must go back to drawing board.”

It would certainly appear that usage-based billing, at least as it has been proposed, is not long for this world. Well, not long for Canada.

And why should it be? What probably should happen, and not only in Canada but in every country with an advanced Internet infrastructure, is a thorough review of current and expected bandwidth use. Services like Netflix and Steam aren’t going away, so why not figure out how to properly integrate their associated data use? It’s a much better solution than clamping down and wishing they’d disappear—in order to prop up ancient distribution methods, or course.

O, Canada, what have you done? The country’s Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC, has passed sweeping new regulations that will force Internet Service Providers to switch to so-called usage-based billing—metered pricing, in less flowery language. That means ISPs there will charge customers by the gigabyte for Internet access, and that’s on top of a flat service fee. There’s nothing particularly new about metered pricing, but the fact that it’s being implemented on a country-wide basis surely merits a quick discussion.

It should be obvious that the only “winners” here are the ISPs (and even then, only the big ISPs who have established, old methods of content delivery to protect) who now stand to make a cool mint as a result of the new fees. Data caps have been drastically lowered—one small, independent ISP was forced to slash its cap from 200GB per month to 25GB per month—and the CRTC has set overage rates at CAD$1.90 per gigabyte over the cap. (Heaven forbid you live in the French-speaking region of the country, as you’ll be expected to cough up CAD$2.35 per gigabyte.) All that means is that you’re free to browse the Internet to the tune of 25GB per month, but the second you break through that barrier you’ll have to pay through the nose. Not fun.

The move couldn’t possibly come at a worse time for companies like Netlix and Apple, or for the everyday people who rely on them.

Services like Netflix’s video streaming chew through bandwidth like chlorofluorocarbons through the ozone layer, or like fire through Fernando Torres shirts. The average Netflix film will use around 1GB of data—and that number will only increase as Netflix improves the quality of its streams. It’s not impossible to imagine a scenario in which a casual movie viewer can quickly brush up against the aforementioned 25GB bandwidth limit.

And that’s just for Netflix, mind. What if you’re a modern Netizen who uses services like Rdio, watches funny YouTube videos, or catches up on the latest Portlandia or SNL skit? What if you use the Internet to download video games from Steam? Napoleon: Total War is something like a 20GB download in and of itself—and that’s without the fantastic Peninsular Campaign add-on!

This simply isn’t a case where “tech geeks” will be the only people negatively affected by the CTRC’s decision. You, your neighbor, and your neighbor’s neighbor are all in the same boat. And it is sinking, fast.

People have already started doing the math. It will actually be cheaper to physically ship a hard drive’s worth of data than it will be to download that same amount of data under the new usage-based billing regime. Already at your monthly bandwidth allocation but want to download the EA’s Dead Space 2 from Steam? Well, the game clocks in at 10GB, meaning that you’re looking at CAD$19 to download it, plus the price of the game itself—around $60. That’s nearly CDN$80 to download a game whose disc-based collector’s edition retails for $80 online. It’s bonkers.

How are you supposed to survive in that environment if you’re someone like Valve (the company behind Steam) or Netflix?

Or maybe that’s the whole point? The big ISPs that stand to make money hand-over-fist as a result of usage-based-billing also have their hands in plain ol’ TV distribution. A sort of: “Hate that you have to pay X-Amount per month just to watch all those Netflix films? No worries, our on-demand system has you covered!”

Either way the big ISP, and its parent company, make out just fine.

And, like always, the consumer is worse for wear. Typical.

UPDATE Canada’s government appears poised to reverse the CRTC’s decision. Fie on you, UBB!

This means that there is a WCDMA 850/1900 variant in the works. The astute in the audience will recognise that such a variant should also work with AT&T in the US — a boon for any AT&T devout out there that have been lusting after the device these last few months.

The news dropped at a Howard Forums meet-up held this week. If you want to catch it all for yourself, I’ve embedded the video, below. It’s over an hour in length, though, so you may want to use the handy table of contents here, to help navigate the behemoth.

[via Engadget]

One statistic calculated to both please and terrify is that, by comScore’s measurements, just over half the population of Canada is on Facebook. That amounts to about 16 million people — a drop in the bucket with Facebook’s user base — but it’s the proportion that matters. US usage is around 40% by some estimates, which is of course significant, but it’s fun that Canada has passed us up in this race. I’m guessing it has something to do with the weather up there.

The comScore report (not actually provided, so this information is second-hand) also makes mention of some other specific services; internet-enabled TV, in the form of Netflix Streaming, Google TV, and so on, is far less prevalent there. Reuters attributes this to regulation debates, but I think that international licensing agreements are decades behind where they should be. This causes TV, movies, music, even ostensibly public-domain works to be inaccessible in some countries. Canada seems to be passed up whenever I hear about expansions by media distribution companies to to new markets.

Another interesting statistic, and one that strikes me as being rather anachronistic, is that Canadians spend an average of 42 hours per month on the internet. What exactly does “on the internet” mean in this case? I am on the internet upwards of 700 hours per month, depending on the number of days, since I have an always-connected smartphone. The internet is no longer accessed in terms of hours; we don’t log in and log out, or at least very few of us do any more.

While these metrics are certainly fun to think about, there are dozens more that are less conscientiously tracked, and less impressive-sounding. Uptake of next-generation services like cross-platform synchronization of files and calendars would be a good indicator, and smartphone use statistics are also highly relevant. Mapping information use is becoming an incredibly complicated field, and while Canada deserves a measure of glory for winning this little round-up, that glory will succumb quickly to a little scrutiny.

And for good measure:

And because some people found the above image offensive, which was placed there as a very serious commentary on international politics and culture, and not at all a joke, it seems only fair that I should add a similarly serious contribution from the Canadian side (from the great Kate Beaton):

RSW RER, along with TREK technology, will develop the turbines to be covered, self-anchoring and rated at 250 kilowatts. They will be placed near the Old Port of Montreal before the end of the year.

Some question turbines’ environmental impact since they can pose hazards to aquatic plant and animal life. Several turbines have regularly killed fish that got sucked in or caught up in the blades, and some have restricted the passage of silt and nutrients. Barnacles can also weigh down the blades over time, decreasing their efficiency. As far as hydropower solutions go however, turbines do less to disturb the environment than dams.

The parents took the children into the store, and then allowed them to walk around picking the movies that the wanted to watch, and then loaded them into the stroller. The couple then left the store without paying for the merchandise. Of course in the US, they would have been harassed and then let go, only to find that all the cases were filled with rocks. Police are currently looking for help in identifying the couple and the children.

Apparently it’s illegal in Canada to copy music from a CD you bought to an iPod (or whatever). It’s simply not allowed, even if you’re not breaking any DRM in the process. (In the U.S., it’s illegal to copy a DVD to your computer’s hard drive because you have to circumvent the copy protection in the process.) Solution? Some sort of levy, which would ensure that “artists” make money even though you’re not re-buying their music.

The deal now is that an MP up there wants to introduce a CAN$75 “iPod levy” that would effectively legalize copying music from a CD you bought to your iPod. The levy has just been proposed, but if the Canadian legislature is anything like its American counterpart it’s going to be a little while before anyone even raises the issue again.

The idea of a levy isn’t new, per se—there’s already a levy on blank media (CD-Rs and the like) that supposedly help to make sure that “artists” get paid. (My hunch is that it goes right back to the record label’s coffers, but whatever.) Granted, you could be buying blank media to backup your PowerPoint presentation, so it’s not a 100 percent fool-proof thing, but it neatly solves the problem in a way that prevents people from having to re-think the entire concept of copyright in the 21st century.

This so-called iPod levy could also negatively affect people who buy iPod but don’t put any music on them—people like me, for example. I have an iPod touch and I dare you to find one song on there. (I pretty much just use it for like 10 minutes a day to check WoW.com before going to bed.) Why should I have to pay CAN$75, which is like US$4,000 these days, to subsidize other people’s habits?

Yes, I understand that the number of people who buy iPods and then don’t put any music on there is quite small, but I needed to fulfill my daily complaint quota.

Let’s turn it around, make it local to our fair American readers. Let’s say Congress, for whatever reason, creates and passes a law that says you’re 100 percent allowed to copy DVDs (legally bypassing the DRM) that you own to your hard drive, but that from now own all commercial DVDs come with a $10 tax on them to cover the “losses,” so to speak. Would you go for that?

Flickr

A new law in Ontario, Canada has banned the use of handheld devices while driving. This includes cellphones, GPS devices, MP3 players, etc. Slight problem: the law is broad enough that you can construe it to include doing things like changing the radio station or reaching for a cup of coffee.

Someone caught breaking the law faces up to a C$500 fine. And this isn’t 15 years ago: C$500 is about $460 right now. Pretty serious money to lose because you need to text your friend WTF.

As for that cup of coffee gimmick that Slashdot originally brought up, I sincerely doubt a police officer is going to waste his time and pull you over for sipping a cup of coffee at the traffic light. Unless, of course, Canadian cops are like their American counterparts and have unofficial quotas to meet at the end of the month.

That’s it, really. Don’t text and drive, friends. It’s not safe, no sir.

via Slashdot

Anyway, this commercial for the Palm Pre in Canadia (in order of importance) shows roller derby, some kind of old persons ball game, and the Palm Pre. The resulting footing, led by an amiable guy in a tie, tells me more about the Pre than Ms. Freakyhead ever did. Good job, Canada! Too bad you’re monarchist communards or I’d totally be living up there.

via Giz

Charlie Sobcov, an eight grader from Canada fell in love with birds on a trip to Costa Rica four years ago. He learned about decreasing bird populations due to global warming and another killer: windows. He found out that 500 million birds are killed by impact with windows annually in the US, Canada and Mexico.

He researched bird vision and learned that they can see ultraviolet light, something we can’t. He then developed a decal in the shape of a flying falcon to stop birds from flying into windows. The decal is covered in fluorescent ultraviolet paint that makes it invisible to humans but visible to birds.

He has already tested it with 40 volunteers from around his city. When asked if he would make and sell it as a product, he said that he’ll consider it once he turns in the science fair project due February.

[CBC via Make]

The good ‘ol United States of America is going to employ Predator drones on the US Canada border within a few days. The unmanned arial drones have been used for years on the southern Mexican border, but they are now needed to keep a watchful eye on Canadians seeing that the US has a booming jobs market. After all, we need to keep Canadians from defecting as it’s common knowledge that Americans enjoy better health care, hockey, and maple syrup than our friendly, northern neighbors.

We spend most of our time searching for the ultimate convergence devices and I truly believe that I’ve found the one to beat. It’s the Pomegranate NS08 from Nova Scotia, of all places. The millimeters-thin touchscreen phone handles voice, web browsing, and e-mail with ease but also tackles tough tasks that no phone to date has attempted.

After checking your e-mail in the morning, the Pomegranate can brew coffee by using special single-serve coffee pods. There are currently four flavors available (Hazelnut, Columbian, French Vanilla, and Sumatran), which is a nice start.

Once you’ve gotten your first cup of coffee in your system, the NS08 features an electric razor for trimming on the go. It’s suitable for stubborn leg hair, too, so ladies and competitive swimmers take notice.

For entertainment, the phone features a high-definition projector for movies and the thing will even turn into a harmonica: “You can play along with preset beats or go freestyle. No other phone in the world plays like the Pomegranate,” according to the NS08 website.

The only areas where the Pomegranate seems to fall short would be that the keyboard looks like it’d be almost impossible to use if you have big fingers and that the phone isn’t real. It’s just a shill for Nova Scotia tourism, the idea that “Someday you’ll be able to get everything you want in one device” but “Today you can get everything you want in one place” – well played, Nova Scotia. Well played indeed.

Pomegranate Phone [via Single Serve Coffee]

If you’re the type of person who lives in Europe (a “European”), you can always go with the E63, although the performance problems I encountered in the E71 would be exacerbated in that little guy.

[Mobilesyrup via Uber, Unwired]

Fresh off the his and hers Dodge Rams CrunchDeal comes a similar deal for his and hers Microsoft Zune players – if you live in Canada, that is. Pick up a manly 16GB Zune at $179 from Best Buy Canada (online only) and you’ll have a soft and sensual 4GB lady Zune added to your cart for free. Not bad… not bad at all.

Microsoft Zune 16GB Portable Media Player [BestBuy.ca via Electronista]

We can jokingly say things like “buy a cellphone jammer to silence those annoying people on the bus” but that would be irresponsible. Quite irresponsible, it turns out, as criminals are now using such devices to impede law enforcement efforts.

It happened last month in Canada. Two Mounties had pulled over a car, and as they approached to car their radios went out. It turns out that the two guys inside the pulled over car had turned out one of those $200 eBay cellphone jammers, putting the officers at unnecessary risk.

This is a good time to remind y’all that using cellphone jammers is illegal in the U.S and most other places. In fact, a first time offender faces up to a $1,000 fine for using a jammer in the U.S.

Seems to me that an iPod is a much cheaper way to avoid hearing a fellow commuter’s conversation. And anyone who uses a cellphone at a restaurant should be promptly shown the door.

A quick recap for those who haven’t been following the mobile browser scene for a while: Skyfire, currently available for Windows Mobile 5/6 and S60, is the only mobile browser supporting full Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Quicktime, and other processor intensive multimedia formats. It pulls this off where others fail through a bit of proxy voodoo; rather than forcing your handset to do all the legwork, a remote computer crunches as much as it can before sending it your way.

Skyfire had remained in private beta until recently, just opening its doors last month. With the announcement that the beta was now public, a number of folks around the globe were disappointed to realize that it was only open to US residents. When we asked Skyfire for an international ETA, they responded that it would be coming “in weeks, not months.”

While it’s still limited to North America, Skyfire announced this morning that they’ve expanded their turf to include Canada. Starting today, Leslie Nielsen and Celine Dion can enjoy Skyfire in all of its splendor. The rest of Canada can use it too, of course – but come on, share your health care system or something in return.

If you’re north of the border and itchin’ to dig into some Hulu on the go, go grab Skyfire here.

Even if you know this stuff already, it’s worth it to hear the kid at the end saying “Apple rules?!” [via Hack n Mod]