PIAC launches complaint against Videotron music service

Media | 09/01/2015 8:45 pm EDT

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is asking the CRTC to direct Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron to change the price structure of its new music service, which exempts data consumed through some music streaming apps from data caps. Videotron “favours its own mobile service by making it more attractive and less expensive to use at the expense of all other [Internet] use and in particular any other non-covered audio content, streamed or otherwise,” PIAC said in a Part 1 complaint filed Tuesday. Videotron introduced the service, called Unlimited Music, last week. It allows...

Net-neutrality advocates cry foul over Videotron music service

Media | 08/27/2015 8:15 pm EDT

MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron is giving itself an undue preference with a new service that allows its mobile customers to listen to music streaming without it counting against their data caps, net neutrality advocates say. “The issue is known colloquially now as zero rating, where you treat certain packets from certain sources as not charged under your telecom billing plan,” John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), said in a phone interview. “The idea behind net neutrality is that that kind of favouritism isn’t...