p2pnet news | Freedom:- With the Bell Sympatico throttling fiasco still generating well-deserved headlines across Canada, congratulations are in order for Rocky Gaudrault, co-owner of Teksavvy and his brother, Marc.

Their home base is in Chatham, Ontario, and there, they’ve been named entrepreneurs of the year.

Sponsor?

Bell Canada.

True

Meanwhile, Bell hasn’t been sitting idle while the storm intensifies around it.

John Sweeney, senior VP, carrier services, has just fired off this attempt at an excuse to clients >>>

In 2007, Bell Canada launched internet traffic management for our Sympatico residential customers during peak periods of Internet usage (4:30 p.m. 2:00 a.m.) to ensure we deliver bandwidth fairly to all customers during peak Internet usage. Last week, we initiated similar traffic management for our wholesale users as well.

Bell’s congestion and bandwidth management solutions apply to our entire DSL PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet) network, including both retail and wholesale services. To ensure optimal use of Internet network resources for all of our customers Bell has implemented Data Packet Inspection (DPI) on P2P file sharing and bit torrent applications. DPI identifies the packet mapping, but does not monitor, track, or access the data of your customers who are using P2P applications. Your customers can continue to use P2P services but they will not work as fast during peak periods. All other application functionality is not affected.

We understand the difficulty this action has caused for you and your customers who are P2P users, but the majority of your end users will experience an increased level of satisfaction. We regret the fact that we did not advise you in advance of taking this action, but the action was necessary to allow for a more fair allocation of bandwidth for all Canadian internet users.

Regards,

John Sweeney
Bell Canada
Floor 6N
483 Bay Street
Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C9
john.sweeney@bell.ca
Telephone: 416-353-7225
Fax: 416-977-3557

Across the border, Comcast, America’s largest cable TV and Internet provider, is also “managing traffic,” echoing the same facile party line being trotted out by Bell, to wit, that it’s only acting on behalf users deprived of bandwidth by the activities of all those nefarious file sharers.

To remedy the situation, it’s struck a deal with BitTorent, once one of the bad guys but now one of the good guys.

It’s all window dressing, of course, and as Comcast unblushingly admits, it’ll, “still manage traffic during peak periods”.

Is Bell pondering a similar ’solution’ do you think?

Says a post on Be Humble >>>

Bell Canada’s position is that the Canadian Internet belongs to it, and that it has the right and duty to simply toss out packets based on which protocol they`re running on, in order to maximize profits. This is the opposite of how the Internet works, and it`s a disaster. No one had to get permission from all the worlds’ phone companies in order to invent the Web, or Skype, or BitTorrent. But Bell Canada`s logic is that they should have the ability to reach into the stream of packets and secretly and discriminatorily chuck out packets that it has some prejudice against.

p2pnet’s Ottawa Gal started the media ball rolling in the first place last year.

Here’s her take on the Bell ding-dong.

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REALITY CHECK 1

In 2007, Bell Canada launched internet traffic management for our Sympatico residential customers during peak periods of Internet usage (4:30 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.) to ensure we deliver bandwidth fairly to all customers during peak Internet usage. Last week, we initiated similar traffic management for our wholesale users as well.

Bell, to this day, still has not told its paying users it is throttling Bell Sympatico P2P Black List), nor disclosed to its users the times they’ve decided to ‘traffic manage’ their paying customers. Customers are left in the dark and must determine on their own why their high-speed internet comes to a screeching halt.

Do you see 30kB/s internet as ‘high-speed’ internet?

They also make believe there’s a bandwidth shortage (they should be challenged on this) and must break it up evenly for all users, including their wholesalers.

Has Bell notified all their users they have a bandwidth problem?

Have they notified users that their high-speed internet is no longer high speed because there isn’t enough bandwidth to go around?

Has Bell stopped selling high-speed internet because there is not enough bandwidth as they claim?

Should users start a class-action against Bell for selling and advertizing something they cannot deliver, by their own statements? After all they say, ‘to ensure we deliver bandwidth fairly to all customers during peak Internet usage’, which means they have so little it has to be managed and spread out evenly among users and now the wholesalers.

What exactly have the users and wholesalers bought, Bell? Crippled high-speed? Is this a new category or class of high-speed internet being sold? If it is, I can’t find it on your website!

Bell needs to be challenge on this bold claim they make not only by their own Sympatico customers, but by wholesale ISPs who pay for this ‘claimed’ crippled service Bells says they can no longer deliver, by their own statements above.

But Bell isn’t the only provider making this bold claim. Rogers does too.

Both companies recently jacked-up their prices to deliver the best high-speed crippled internet they have to offer (Price- and bandwidth fixing? Competition fixing? ).

REALITY CHECK 2

Bell’s congestion and bandwidth management solutions apply to our entire DSL PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet) network, including both retail and wholesale services.

Oh sure. Now they tell the wholesalers. SURPRISE! Ah-ha, Gotcha! Pay us!

However, Bell also told wholesalers & the CRTC this wouldn’t happen, as per this document (paragraph 5) Bell filed with the CRTC in response to possible throttling:

Bell Canada reserves the right to implement a PIR rate in cases of troubleshooting or to protect the network infrastructure from congestion resulting from malfunctioning or mis-configured equipment or malicious hacking.

As professor Michael Geist put it, (The Bell Wake-Up Call)

The new throttling system has nothing to do with troubleshooting, malfunctioning equipment, or malicious hacking, but rather involves speed limits for a particular class of traffic. Moreover, for months Bell has been installing “deep packet inspection” capabilities into its network. Sources advise that the company was regularly asked about its intentions and that it consistently assured ISPs that throttling would not apply to wholesale services.

In addition, paragraph 8 has Bell saying this:

In summary, MNSi’s comments are unfounded and based upon incorrect assumptions.

But were they ‘unfounded’ Bell? Were they ‘incorrect assumptions’?

Bell assured the competition (their wholesalers) nothing like this would happen, but now it’s doing an about face, flip-flopping on its words.

If we reverse the word ‘unfounded’ we get FOUNDED! SURPRISE!

Ah-ha, Gotcha!

Will the CRTC finally have the guts to stand up to Bell?

Will Industry Canada?

Or will both entities once again allow Bell to do what it pleases, flip-flop and walk all over everyone and anyone?

REALITY CHECK 3

To ensure optimal use of Internet network resources for all of our customers Bell has implemented Data Packet Inspection (DPI) on P2P file sharing and bit torrent applications. DPI identifies the packet mapping, but does not monitor, track, or access the data of your customers who are using P2P applications. Your customers can continue to use P2P services but they will not work as fast during peak periods. All other application functionality is not affected.

What a load of hog-wash! I have to ask, is this letter from the Bell department of mis-information?

All other application functionality IS affected, as stated by so many ISP customers, such as Teksavvy customers: Gaming, legit BT Traffic (CBC Releases), VOIP, VPN, SSH, NNTP, SSL FTP, ect.

In short, anything using non-standard ports.

In addition, because Bell has decided to “traffic manage” anything not on standard ports (example SSH not on standard port 22) then the throttle will take effect. This, in turn, compromises the security and privacy people & companies have instituted on their machines and setup by running programs on non-standard ports (ie hiding services open to intrusion).

What business is it of Bell’s to tell people SSH (for example) must be run on port 22?

What business is it of Bell’s to monitor the ports and applications and punish those taking security and privacy measures by running programs on non-standard ports?

Many people change default ports to increase security/privacy and make it harder for hackers, botnet’s and the like, to find what services are being run on a machine.

This again is NONE of Bell Canada’s business!

If Bell Canada is going to play Port Police and force someone to run (as an example) OpenSSH on port 22, will they also play Security Police and release notification in real time to users when an exploit is released into the wild and already setup on botnets for exploitation?

With this move they single handedly compromise people’s computer security and privacy and force it down the throat of the wholesale ISP users.

They also make the false claim above that this affects only P2P type programs and affects nothing else. What a load of propaganda.

What business is it of Bell’s to affect VoIP or gaming usage of thousands of users because they use torrents?

What business is it of Bell Canada to interfere to the point that they cause VoIP to stop working for the wholesalers customers? Is this really competitive? Open and free markets in Canada?

REALITY CHECK 4

We understand the difficulty this action has caused for you and your customers who are P2P users, but the majority of your end users will experience an increased level of satisfaction.

Again, what business is it of Bell Canada to decide what will make independent ISPs customers happy and increase their satisfaction? How dare they tell the wholesale ISP this is for their own good and their customers good!

Who made Bell the 3rd party satisfaction police for wholesalers?

Smells more like it makes Bell happy so their own customers don’t leave for the greener pastures of the wholesalers. Ahem, is Industry Canada listening? Anyone home?

Who told Bell they can interfere without consequence with someone else’s business, business ethics, business practises and business model?

Does Industry Canada allow this? Does the CRTC?

Is this competitive when Bell can tell your company what’s good for them and force it upon them?

Bell understands there was ‘difficulty’? They admit this? Then they should be made to pay for the ‘difficulty’ they forced onto the wholesale ISPs and their customers. They should be forced to pay for the loss of business, additional resources, man-hours, support, and the lost of revenue they caused due to the fact that customers will switch ISP due to this ‘difficulty’ Bell Canada admits to.

REALITY CHECK 5

We regret the fact that we did not advise you in advance of taking this action, but the action was necessary to allow for a more fair allocation of bandwidth for all Canadian internet users.

Many people were also believed the wholesaler knew of this ploy and directly blamed the wholesaler. So Bell is admitting the direct result of their failure to inform resulted in the wholesaler’s reputation to be diminished, and they ‘regret’ it.

Bell single-handedly made people believe the wholesaler were behind this harming not only their business but their reputation as well. Once again, it shows how little they fear Industry Canada and the CRTC.

Their excuse —- ‘action was necessary’, we had to move fast and inform no one even if it meant harming you and your business, but there was an urgent bandwidth crisis that had to be addressed ASAP, implemented over the weeks and planned over the months!

We had no time to call you and tell you. We had to act fast on behalf of ‘all Canadians’. However, we had time to bill you for our ‘optimized’ service to ‘increase the level of satisfaction’ to your customers and ‘all Canadians’

Does Bell represent and speak for these 340,000 Canadians, the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), who filed a complaint with the CRTC Friday? I don’t think so!

Does Bell represent and speak for the Council of Canadians, which is ‘Canada’s largest citizens’ organization, with members and chapters across the country. Who work to protect Canadian independence by promoting progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, energy security, public health care, and other issues of social and economic concern to Canadians.’? I don’t think so!

They set up a direct link so ‘all Canadians’ can directly Email Industry Minister Jim Prentice about how Bell is preventing ‘all Canadians’ their ability to communicate and access information freely on the Internet.

Please use it and make your voice heard.

I hope all these wholesale ISPs are documenting every single cent this has cost them so Bell can reimburse them.

After all, they admit this caused you and your business ‘difficulties’ by not informing you of the super-urgent ‘fair allocation of bandwidth’ crisis that they saved ‘all Canadian internet users’ from.

So that’s very quick take on Bells very small letter to the wholesale ISPs.

Will the CRTC and Industry Canada allow Bell Canada to get away with this?

Will the CRTC and Industry Canada have the backbone to stand up to Bell on behalf of ‘all Canadians’?

Will someone or something stand up for ‘all Canadians’ like Bell decided to do?

Or will Bell laugh last and the loudest, as it calls the shots for all ISPs and ‘all Canadian’.

[Ottawa Gal is a long-time p2pnet reader and comment poster who`d rather remain anonymous. She says she works in the University, likes her cat, reality TV, and Doctor McDreamy. Her favourite web sites are the Michael Geist blog and p2pnet.net. 'Privacy on the net is also important to me,' she says. "I need a tinfoil hat " She's also the mother of, "two darling little girls who tore down my ceiling fan thinking it would be fun to hang from it." So she advises parents to, "never have an armchair around from which little ones can reach fans". (No one was hurt ) ]

Stay tuned,and don’t forget to check out Teksavvy’s Battle at the Big Barn!

Slashdot it!

well-deserved headlines – Bell download throttling: update, March 27, 2008
managing traffic – Comcast deals with BitTorrent, March 27, 2008

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 29th, 2008 at 8:07 am and is filed under Freedom, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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