Go to the Globe and Mail homepage  Jump to main navigationJump
to main content  Tories side with consumers in clash over
Internet billing Add to ...  The Harper government is killing an
independent federal regulator's decision on Internet billing, a
populist move allowing the Conservatives to cast themselves as a
champions of consumers.  The Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission ruling - which had sparked a major
consumer backlash - would have spelled an end to unlimited Web
access packages offered by smaller Internet providers.  The
controversial verdict would only have affected a minor
percentage of Internet users, but was nevertheless poised to
become a bigger issue as increasing number of Canadians begin to
download or stream ever-larger files from entertainment
businesses such as Netflix.  But a powerful grassroots campaign
against the ruling was so fierce it threatened to become a major
political controversy on the eve of a possible federal election
this spring.  Dumping the CRTC r