Congestion? I think not

Here's one quote from the CRTC's hearings with Independent ISPs which really I think makes it pretty obvious that this isn't a congestion issue:

Rates set by bell are not relative to congestion. Bell says this is a congestion issue, but they charge more [for each gigabyte downloaded over their monthly limit] to people with slower speeds, so the result should be the reverse [i.e. lower fees for less use].

- Jean-François Mezei, Telecommunications Consultant with Quebec-based Vaxination Informatique

The same has been the case with Shaw. ($2/gig on slower packages, $1/gig for faster packages). Shaw's announced though that they're not going to proceeding with usage-based billing until consultations with customers are over. Of course this may be nothing more than a PR campaign, as they announced that they'd give a couple of warnings first.

In related news, Bell can't measure bandwidth accurately.