Internet phone service company Vonage Canada warns that cable and phone
    companies could restrict "network neutrality" by limiting Canadians'
    freedom of choice on the Internet; requests CRTC investigate
    "anti-competitive" action by Shaw

    MISSISSAUGA, ON, March 7 /CNW/ - Vonage Canada today stepped up its
efforts to ensure fair and competitive telephone service for Canadians, by
disclosing its request to the Canadian Radio-Television & Telecommunications
Commission (CRTC) to investigate Shaw Communications' "thinly veiled VoIP tax"
to determine if Shaw is unfairly driving up competitor's prices and forcing
Western Canadians to pay more for phone service.

    Shaw recommends to its high-speed Internet customers that they pay an
additional $10 charge if they use a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone
service provider such as Vonage Canada. Shaw claims its "quality of service
enhancement" fee, which it does not charge to its own Internet phone
customers, is necessary to ensure independent VoIP service is not disrupted or
degraded.

    "Shaw's VoIP tax is an unfair attempt to drive up the price of competing
VoIP services to protect its own high-priced service," said Joe Parent, vice
president of marketing, Vonage Canada. "Shaw's actions are also part of a
bigger issue of network neutrality and who controls how Canadians use their
Internet service. Vonage Canada wants to ensure that the monopoly telephone
and cable Internet service providers don't restrict what services,
applications or content Canadians can access. Canadians demand and deserve
freedom of choice."

    In its submission to the CRTC, Vonage described the VoIP tax as a
possible "red herring" because Shaw had refused to provide a technical
explanation for how its enhancement works or why it is necessary.

    "Shaw has built a world-class network which Vonage customers use everyday
with confidence and satisfaction," said Parent. "Recommending that its
customers pay extra if they don't use Shaw's Internet phone service is unfair.
Vonage Canada had little choice but to request that the CRTC determine the
validity and fairness of Shaw's fee structure."

    In its CRTC submission, Vonage Canada said: "Because Vonage competes
directly with the telephone services of the network operators that also
provide the high-speed Internet access, the incentives to discriminate against
us are clear. This will result in less innovation, less choice and higher
prices for Canadian consumers in the long run."

    "If the type of action represented by Shaw's (enhancement) service is not
seriously investigated and addressed by the Commission, there will be a
heightened risk of a duopoly in local voice (phone) services," that will
unduly favour the phone and cable companies who provide the Internet access.

    "In the absence of credible, complete information, there is good reason
to believe (Shaw's) service offering is not an enhancement to Shaw's      
high-speed Internet service but rather is an anti-competitive measure aimed at
either increasing the perceived cost, or damaging the perceived reliability,
of the services of independent Internet telephone service providers when
compared to Shaw's higher-priced phone service."

...why should they have to pay even for the the privilege?

My sentiment entirely! If I pay a fair market price for a broadband connection, why should I now pay extra to compensate (insert telco) for the loss of their (usually obscenely expensive) voice traffic? 

I'm not so sure this is going to happen here in the UK, because there is such a huge range of broadband suppliers. Good 'ol market forces and all.

But I'm sure we are going to see charging by data transfered in the long run. It's the fair way to go I guess.

What's important is that there is massive competition - which there is. Just look long at the long list of broadband suppliers in the UK.

If "by the KB" charging can show a proift - and it takes market share because that's what the consumer wants - then we will see it.