Clement hints feds will reverse Internet-billing ruling

OTTAWA -Industry Minister Tony Clement hinted the Conservative government is leaning toward quashing last week's controversial decision by Canada's telecommunications regulator, which effectively kills unlimited Internet pricing packages.

"The decision on its face has some pretty severe impacts," Clement told reporters in Ottawa after NDP and Liberal critics pushed in the House of Commons to reverse the decision of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

"I indicated the impacts on consumers, on small business operators, on creators, on innovators. So that's why I have to work through a process, cross my T's, doc my I's. When you're dealing with a legal process, that's what you have to do. But I will be doing that very, very quickly, and getting back to the prime minister and my colleagues very, very quickly," said Clement.

He made the comments after Dimitri Soudas, spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said the government was very concerned about CRTC's decision on usage-based billing and its impact on consumers.

The CRTC last week reaffirmed the usage-based billing model - requiring Canadian Internet service providers (ISPs) to charge customers extra for exceeding monthly download caps. The blow against unlimited Internet use has unleashed a backlash by consumer groups and smaller telecom providers, which built a business model around unlimited download packages to compete against such larger providers as Bell Canada and Rogers Communications.

Companies that offer bandwidth-heavy services, such as Netflix, have also criticized the decision. The company's unlimited web-streaming film and television service means customers are seeing their monthly Internet bills rise dramatically when they exceed their preset monthly limit.

Charlie Angus, digital affairs critic for the NDP, said the decision makes Canada a "digital backwater."

The Liberals also weighed in, calling on the government to reverse the decision.