GATINEAU, Que. - Canada's big telecom players are back in front of the country's broadcast regulator today to talk about usage-based Internet billing.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is reviewing how Bell Canada (TSX:BCE), Rogers (TSX:RCI.B) and others charge independent Internet providers for the use of their networks.

At issue is a CRTC decision that decided Internet wholesalers would be forced to impose additional charges on independent providers whose customers exceed their monthly download limits.

That decision created a uproar after smaller Internet providers argued the policy would make it impossible for them to compete -- among those who spoke out against the CRTC's policy was Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who said on Twitter that he had asked for the review.

CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told the hearing today that the commission is only looking at the wholesale prices that independent Internet providers pay for network use and not retail rates that are charged to their consumers.

Bell and other large Internet service providers, who also compete with their wholesale customers for consumer and business users, have argued that their networks shouldn't be clogged by a small number of heavy users with no-limit service.

The smaller ISPs argue they will be driven out of business if they have to use the same pricing model employed by the large players, who charge extra if the retail customers exceed monthly usage limits. 

[Editor's note: The Tyee's editor David Beers in January slammed the CRTC for approving user based billing and what he claimed were anti-competitive measures by the large players that would hurt smaller Web innovators, an op-ed that drew thousands of tweets and Facebook recommends when it was published in the Globe and Mail and the Tyee.]

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