Reddit reaction to differential pricing overwhelmingly critical

Users of Reddit Inc.’s website have largely railed against differential pricing in a discussion initated by the CRTC, with an overwhelming number of comments on the social platform expressing concern about the practice, which allows providers to exempt some services from counting towards a customer’s data allotment. The CRTC asked Reddit users in the /r/Canada forum to submit answers to questions about the benefits of the practice, concerns they have about it, whether those concerns outweigh the benefits and how the commission should regulate it. The commission said “every comment and every upvote will become part of the official public record,” ahead of its upcoming hearing on the practice. As of the publication of this story, the thread had generated 1190 comments since opening on Sep. 26. The solution to the question for many was simple: “uphold net neutrality rules and end data caps,” as one user put it. One of the top-rated user comments acknowledged that under zero-rating they are “free to use other services more without having to pay for a higher end internet service,” but wondered “why are the data caps so low in the first place? Isn’t data caps being low what differential pricing is trying to ‘address’?” How competition would be affected was also a concern. One user complained that an entrenched business could pay for priority traffic and leave other, less profitable companies, to struggle, hurting start-ups. “Many of our are also content producers,” another user said. “This gives the established ISP tremendous unfair advantage.” Others said the Internet should be treated as a basic utility, like hydro, water and gas. Katy Anderson of OpenMedia also chimed in to the Reddit discussion, describing zero-rating as “the practice where telcos strike high-level deals to make certain apps data free but not others, while using ridiculously low data caps to force you into their ‘preferred’ services.” Her comment was one of the most upvoted. But even those who thought there was some benefit to the practice were concerned how the CRTC would approach it. “This is great for certain specific things like streaming,” said one user, but questioned how the regulator would define such services for zero-rating. The Reddit-posted backlash is in contrast to the positive light in which many companies framed the issue. For example, in interventions filed last week, Cogeco Inc. said that the practice “may constitute innovative competitive practices that contribute to expand consumer choice.” Rogers Communications Inc., which has opposed zero rating, said in a submission last week that “under a net neutrality model, all content and traffic must be treated the same.” The Reddit thread will close Friday evening. The CRTC will hold a five-day public hearing in Gatineau, Que., beginning Oct. 31, where it will hear from 31 groups, companies and individuals. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

Reddit reaction to differential pricing overwhelmingly critical

Broadcast | September 30, 2016

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Reddit reaction to differential pricing overwhelmingly critical

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