Broadband ruling protest broadens its base

A group fighting a CRTC ruling allowing telcos to de-regulate certainhigh speed services is now taking its campaign to the generalpublic. The Campaign for Competitive Broadband said Thursday it haslaunched a Web site called www.consumersforinternetcompetition.com togain public support for their efforts to persuade the federal cabinetto overturn the decision. The first stage of the campaign was aimed atorganizations. Coalition members include the Canadian Association ofInternet Providers (CAIP), MTS Allstream and the Canadian Federation ofIndependent Businesses. “We've been greatly heartened by the swift andextensive response so far,” said CAIP chair Tom Copeland, “and Internetservice providers from many parts of the country have said they want todo more to call consumers' attention to this bad decision and the needto reverse it. With only 78 days left before the federal governmentdecides what to do, we urge consumers to go to the site and learn howbadly they will be served by this decision, and take 20 seconds to helpmake things right,”