Net neutrality in Canada under siege: Bell implements “traffic shaping” service to throttle Internet access
By Michael Lithgow, March 31, 2008 Comments (9)
Bell Canada - Canada's largest internet provider - is going ahead with its plan to undermine net neutrality. They call it “traffic shaping” and “traffic management”, but what it adds up to is the end of net neutrality for anyone on the Bell system. This includes Bell customers and non-Bell customers who contract with third party ISPs who use the Bell system.
Bell and other Canadian ISPs such as Rogers have been “traffic managing” for over a year, slowing some kinds of traffic down while privileging others. The data that Bell tends to target for slow down is peer-to-peer and torrent traffic. Last week, Bell applied the same “traffic shaping” controls to its third party ISPs, service providers who use the Bell system but who are independent companies with their own clients. What this means is that Bell is screwing - not only with its own customers' data, but with the accounts of third party Internet users.
Do you know whose system your ISP is using?
April 7 is the date Bell has set to have the “traffic shaping” procedures implemented across its entire network.
Check out the Bell the Throttler video -- helps to explain the warp and waft of the Bell attack on net neutrality.
For more information, check out Michael Geist's blog . To get involved in the campaign to save the internet from telecommunications robber rarons, contact Campaign for Democratic Media.
The problem is that Canada does not have legislation preventing telecoms companies from "traffic managing". Canadians need to demand (write letters, send emails, raise the at public forums) legislation that would prevent traffic managing and shaping of any kind. At the moment, net neutrality is NOT protected by law ...
Canada is way behind the telecomm industry / customer services ...
You can also see:
NUPGE asks CRTC to investigate Internet 'traffic shaping'
http://www.nupge.ca/news_2008/n28ma08c.htm
and
Further information on threat to net neutrality in Canada:
http://www.nupge.ca/issues/Internet.htm
Wow... these telecom companies are really showing their immaturity. People are obviously using high bandwidth when the Torrent client searches for parts of the file, (Anywhere from 800-2000 % of the file size), and they are being babies by putting some sort of blocker on it. I use it for legit reasons, and I am outraged. Not only are they not telling us how much information and bandwidth they are blocking, but they could easily be blocking other info as well.
They have no right to mess with OUR internet because it belongs to all Canadians. Same old story where our service gets lowered for our own good...and the rich get richer. Well I will jump ship as soon as possible but that is hardly a option right now because Bell has its finger on the controls.
There is a national campaign being organized through Campaign for Democratic Media [democraticmedia.ca] to protect net neutrality in Canada. Check it out. Get involved. Another effective way to show displeasure with the telecoms is to change service providers and tell them why. If tens of thousands of Canadians switched from Bell and told them it was because of traffic shaping, I think we'd see some kind of response.
I would be interested to know whether or not these "innovations" will affect peering sites between ISPs in Canada. For instance, traffic moving from Telus Montreal to Bell Toronto goes through a peering site in Chiccago. Traffic moving within US borders may also be peered at points in Canada (though this is less likely). In any case, I'm wondering what effect this throttling will have on the regional network topography.
Looks like Bell's doing a bit of spin control on the issue:
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=eaa844f4-97b4-4b8e-be36-6228b302a192&k=96997
While that is certainly frustrating, ISPs implementing traffic shaping is certainly nothing new. All of the major networks in the US already utilize some sort of throttling. So far this has been mostly concentrated on the Bit Torrent protocol. Luckily, by using the encryption option present in most bit torrent clients, it is possible to avoid being throttled with only a modest reduction in download speed.
I am much more concerned with the larger implications of loosing net neutrality. What happens when ISPs start to provide faster access to web pages that pay for the privilege (at the expense of everyone else)? What if they start blocking/throttling access to "fringe" political web pages?
I'm not suggesting that any sort of conspiracy is at work -- just basic corporate law. Corporations are legally obligated to maximize the profits of their investors. If they can gain more advertising revenue, or more lenient restrictions from the FCC, by restricting themselves to "mainstream" content then they will seriously consider it.
Post new comment