Basically, the ruling allows Bell to charge its wholesale customers—smaller, local service providers—the same rates it charges residential customers, minus a slight discount (around 15 percent), and also precludes those smaller providers from offering unlimited plans (since Bell does not offer them to its customers). As a result, usage allowances offered by these ISPs could be curbed by as much as 90 percent. In general, most customers will receive 25GB per month for the price they’re currently paying, with overages costing as much as a few dollars per gigabyte.

 

So what does this mean for Web design? Well, it could mean a return to old principles and practices, those developed in the days of dial-up, when people didn’t download because it was slow. Now, downloading is fast, but under the new UBB process, it will be expensive. In fact, according to OpenMedia.ca, it could be cheaper to buy and mail digital storage devices (CDs, DVDs, Flash drives, etc.) than it would be to transfer data electronically.[i] For example, to overnight a 160GB external hard drive full of data would cost about $10. Under usage-based billing, downloading 160GB could cost close to $100—and that’s assuming that a) you purchase a “money-saving” additional usage plan and b) you do nothing else that month—no e-mailing, no Web surfing, nothing.

 

Even general Web browsing can quickly add up. The average Web page is 0.2MB, and the average visitor views 4 pages per site, meaning they use almost a full megabyte to view a single website. Now consider the bandwidth required for shopping, listening to music, watching movies or TV shows online—all activities that are becoming more popular. According to a 2009 survey on consumer Internet use, both the number of online shoppers and the volume of orders placed online increased between 2007 and 2009.[ii] Web designers working on e-commerce sites are going to have to be particularly careful and creative when it comes to balancing site functionality and page size.

 

While there is still a chance that the CRTC will reverse its decision and quash usage-based billing, Web designers need to be prepared if the decision stands. Page size has always been a concern, but under the new usage limits, it may once again become the chief constraint on the design process. And in that case, finding creative ways to address it will be the discerning feature of a quality of Web designer.

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