Net Neutrality for Small Businesses in Canada
On July 17th the Canadian Government strengthened the Telecommunications Act. This was a victory for Net Neutrality in Canada – and a huge step away from the changes happening in the US.
This year, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission in America) said they are rolling back on their net neutrality laws; creating a very different landscape for users of the Internet.
So what is Net Neutrality?
In the simplest terms it keeps the Internet a free place, where content is accessible equally and small businesses can compete against large corporations.
Let’s imagine for a minute that your Internet provider started a video-streaming site similar to Netflix. It would be in the interest of the company to power-up the bandwidth of their own site and reduce the speed of its competitor. If Netflix is lagging and this new site is lightning fast, who are you going to choose? Net Neutrality laws protect Canadian users from this sort of scenario. The Internet is a free place that is powered by algorithms that reward good SEO and content. It’s because of this freedom your small business website can beat larger companies in Google rankings. Canadian Net Neutrality puts the consumers and creators in control, rather than the service providers (ISP).
Before we take a look into how this protects Canadians, let’s do a little compare and contrast.
In the US, the power is being given back to the ISPs. This affects user security, protections against discrimination, and user access to content. De-regulation of ISPs will allow big businesses to take advantage of the market and make it almost impossible for smaller companies to compete. Many critics warned that Canada shouldn’t diverge from the US model; but taking a step away from our neighbor to the south has strengthened the Canadian economy.
What should you know about the Telecommunications Act?
It ultimately prevents companies from either:
- Limiting speeds to certain applications, or
- Offering “zero-rating” on certain apps (meaning using their app won’t affect your data plan)
The Act encourages marketplace competition and innovation based on the quality of the product, not the net worth of the company. For small businesses this is huge! If your big-business competitor could offer a “zero-rate” application for users to access their services, why would they ever use Google on their phones? The consumers get to choose who they want in a level arena. The government strengthened this by ruling against Videotron who wanted to offer “zero-rating” music streaming exclusively to their customers. Companies cannot privilege certain content that would benefit themselves. Net Neutrality puts the choice back in the hands of the consumer.
Why do we care about The Telecommunication Act?
The policy makes Canada an ideal place for innovation; start-ups can flourish in the Canadian market. Thinkbound Marketing Solutions is committed to creating original content for small businesses. We want to continue to create organic content that is rewarded by the consumers – not by ISPs.
Canadian content is protected through a system that will
“safeguard, enrich and strengthen the social and economic fabric of Canada and its regions”
The Internet is a huge place – protect your right to carving out your own corner of the Internet. Thinkbound Marketing Solutions creates organic content that is rewarded by the consumers – not by ISPs. We believe the Internet should be a neutral place where small businesses can thrive.
Innovators, entrepreneurs and go-getters, enjoy the benefits of net neutrality in Canada.
