Prentice dodges Bell Mobility scandal
p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- When it became obvious the Bell Canada traffic throttling scandal wasn’t going away, industry minister Jim Prentice told Canadians they were on their own
“At this point in time, we will continue to leave the matter between consumers on the one hand and Internet Service Providers on the other,” he told the House of Commons,.
Today Bell Canada launched a usurious 15 cents per text message rip off targetting users who didn’t already have some kind of Bell plan.
What about incoming spam messages?
No worries, says Bell. Customers billed for unwanted and unasked-for spam can have the charges removed —- but only after they’ve already paid. And you just know it’s going to be a painful battle with carefully briefed Bell reps stonewalling ad nauseum before users will be reimbursed.
Telus, slated to introduce the same charges at the end of this month, says it’ll be introducing similar charges.
And once again Prentice says he isn’t about to stick up for the people who elected him. Instead, he sides by default with the ISPs.
A disingenuous Prentice headline trumpets “Minister of Industry Stands Up for Consumers on Text Messaging Fees” when in fact, he’s doing absolutely nothing.
“Given these undertakings by Bell Mobility and TELUS, I would encourage consumers dissatisfied with existing plans to seek alternatives,” he says.
“The telecommunications market in Canada is dynamic – choice is available.”
Riiiiight.
“I have also instructed my officials to monitor market activity and to work with third-party experts to study trends and costs in the wireless market. These studies will be made available to the public on an ongoing basis to empower consumers to make informed decisions.”
In other words, the 15 cent rip off is here to stay with Bell and Telus laughing all the way to the bank.
[Thanks again to The Flash for the pic 
]
.
.Stumble It!
traffic throttling scandal – p2pnet traffic shaping digest, April 19, 2008
text message rip off – Bell Mobility to customers: Screw You!, August 8, 2007
carefully briefed Bell reps – ‘La vie est Bell’ (cough, cough), August 7, 2007
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
One thing you can say about Jim Prentice, he’s a very consistent corporate tool.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Ironically I almost never vote mainly because it seems that no matter who you vote for they will inevitably look after the big companies who pay them rather than the people who elected them. That being said when people like Prentice are so blatantly disinterested in their own constituents, that people like me are actually willing to go out and vote them out, should be a strong indication of how badly they are failing in their job.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
@ Ethereal: I couldn’t agree more. Most people are loyal to the almighty dollar and to the people who make them money. Check out this article: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/22210615/candidates_for_sale
August 8th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
So the scenario as I see it is this:
Jim Prentice, George W. Harper, Maxime Bernier and the rest of the countries politicos decide to run for office. The first step is to sign up for a little known darknet site called pBay run exclusively by Corporate America. Here they are able to sell themselves and their policies to the highest bidder. The TOS on the site states clearly that the winning bidder is able to dictate the terms under which the politician is able to operate and outlines specific penalties for non-conformance. The MPAA, RIAA, oil companies and the rest call the shots and the politicians dance.
August 9th, 2008 at 12:52 am
I guess Jim bends over for Bell too. Thought he’d be too sore after taking it from the RIAA and MPAA.
Wonder how much more he can take????
August 9th, 2008 at 5:50 am
LOL, I love the pic. Nobody can dare say that this guy isn’t up their ass. Bell probably paid him off to leave the issue alone.
August 13th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Goerge told us the media put the wrong spin on these text charges,on July 11, only 4% of the customers are affected he said, they had ( BCE) to act because the competition acted, ( I guess he meant Telus), it made no sense to me at the time and still does not, the largest mobility, Rogers, did not do it, that is the competition George, and why risk losing ground in the only area you seem to hold your own!
Want to improve the bottom line, think North of 2500, much farther North.
And another advise to George, if you rather read this in a more private environment, you can reactive the employee forum on Bellnet that Sabia shut down, to silence the employees.