Throttling updated but not concluded
Posted : Tuesday November 25th, 2008

So last week the CRTC finally rules on the "packet shaping" or "throttling" being performed by Bell. At face the CRTC said that Bell wasn't breaking any laws but it's a decision that's left a fair degree of confusion in it's wake.

Bell claimed the decision as a victory but the CRTC then disagreed. Basically the CRTC spin is that while packet shaping may not be illegal it's not "correct" from an ethical or ideal perspective either.

I become more convinced with time that my idea of spinning off the network itself into a crown-corporation is a really good one. I think the bottom line concern, even for the smaller ISPs that filed the original complaint and are voicing outrage over the ruling, is not so much that throttling is happening at all but in the conflict of interest since Bell also acts as an ISP directly to customers. If the network is saturated who do you think will be the first group to be throttled? Bell's customers or someone elses? I think that's a question that we all know the answer too.

So now the next step of the process is moving on. The CRTC is collecting more information and will make some sort of ruling/plan supposedly in February. I say supposedly because they were two months behind (of a 6 month schedule) in issuing the ruling they have so far so it seems likely we could be waiting till next May to actually get the final result.

I'd like to add a point that if you read this and don't know what I am talking about or why it applies to you. Well. If you live in Canada this is pretty important stuff. The final rulings on this will affect alot of things including, the amount of competition for internet services in Canada, the price you pay, the quality of service and the responsibility for long-term upgrades and capacity planning. In many ways as far as Canada goes this ruling will go a long way to determining the future course of the internet and internet business in Canada. So yeah, it's important.

Tags

Bell  CRTC  ISP  packet  shaping  throttling 

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Internet 

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