Bell Canada has responded to CAIP’s (Canadian Association of Internet Providers) request for an “extension and disclosure” of information.

In its previous filing certain information was lodged ‘in confidence’ with the CRTC Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) and it now seems the company used GAS  customers’ (an ISP) private information in the filing,  and we haven’t been privileged to know the source of the data.

Here’s Bell’s response to CAIP’s request for an extension»»»

1 The Company is in receipt of CAIP’s letter dated 16 July 2008 requesting disclosure of certain information filed in confidence as part of the Company’s answer dated 11 July 2008 regarding a particular GAS customer as well as an extension of the deadline for CAIP to file its reply.

2 The Company has spoken with the GAS customer in question and agreed to provide to the GAS customer their information that was filed in confidence at para, 25-26 of the Company’s Answer, as well as para. 159. The GAS customer has also agreed to the disclosure of that very same information to CAIP’s counsel. As of the filing of this letter, both the GAS customer and CAIP’s counsel have received a copy of the relevant information in para. 25-26 and 159.

3 In its process letter dated 19 June 2008, the Commission established 10 July 2008 as the date for the Company to file its Answer and 17 July 2008 as the date for CAIP to file its reply. The Company subsequently requested an extension of one day to file its Answer and indicated that it would not object to an extension of one day for CAIP to file its reply. The Company therefore filed its answer on Friday, 11 July 2008. In CAIP’s letter, while a request is made for an extension of “one extra day” to file its reply which would have been Friday, 18 July 2008, CAIP is in fact asking for an extension of three days including the weekend to file their Reply on Tuesday, 22 July 2008. Notwithstanding, the Company does not object to CAIP filing their Reply on 22 July 2008.

Going by paragraph 2, they’re going to  disclose “certain information” to the GAS customer (ISP) in  question, and the GAS customer will pass it along to CAIP.

But can Bell target and take a particular GAS customers’  information and submit it to the CRTC?

Was the GAS customer initially told its information was used and divulged to the CRTC?

In Bell’s previous filing information filed in confidence with the CRTC (data whose source was not made known to the public). It appears Bell Canada used a certain GAS customers’ (ISP) private network information in their filing at paragraphs 25, 26 and 159.

From these data Bell says, with regard to the ISP in question »»»

CAIP notes that its “members typically plan for additional capacity when peak AHSSPI utilisation rates hover between 50% and 60% of the total capacity of the AHSSPI”. The table [data taken from a certain ISP] shows that even after shaping the utilization level surpasses the level where additional capacity should be planned for. Therefore, one can see that at this level of utilization, the GAS customer is fully utilizing its AHSSPIs. The utilization levels for each GigE AHSSPI greatly surpass those that CAIP notes are typically used to determine when to add capacity.

Also, “This GAS customer is definitely not paying for excess capacity”.
In a nut shell, they try to dismiss CAIP’s claim that its members are buying additional capacity when their stated threshold is reached, and Bell tries to prove this by taking and using a certain ISP’s data it captured in March, 2008.
In Paragraph 159 of Bells original filing, Bell claims »»»

Furthermore, the Commission has recently determined in the Essential Facilities decision that the retail Internet access market is sufficiently competitive so that it classified GAS service as a non-essential service. Contrary to the predictions of CAIP in its initial application, it is clear that the Company’s network management practices have not lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the Internet access market. Indeed, the evidence demonstrates the opposite. As seen in Figure 17, the Company’s number of total GAS end-users has continued to grow each month before and after traffic shaping was implemented and the same is true for the GAS customer referred to above:” [Refer to table 17]

In short, Bell says the ISP in question, whose data it’s been using since Jan-07, shows it (the ISP) suffered no damage by the throttling.

To achieve that, Bell must have taken and divulged data from its Bell-wholesale division to claim the ISP has continued to enjoy a growth in customers, as suggested in which they show in table 17 of its most recent submission.

From the highlighted reply from Bell Canada (paragraph 2), it’s planning to disclose “certain information” to the GAS customer (ISP) in question and teh GAS customer in question will then allow it to be passed to CAIP.

In other words they may expand on the data given and name the ISP in question.
Table 17 shows the ISP in question continues to experience a growth in its customer base after the throttling.

But what are the reasons for this growth?

One need only check the Sympatico forum on DSLreports.com, the Rogers forum and the Canadian ISP forum for the answers »»»

1. Bell’s service and support has turned MANY users off, encouraging them to change ISPs.

2. Bell’s increased pricing compared to certain ISP’s is out of touch with MANY users, thus they changed ISP.

3. Bell’s DSL service is plagued by faulty copper-wire lines to the premise. Users who think they should have full 5 or 7 meg, end up getting on average 3.5-meg DSL. This low speed coupled with the high price of Bell, forces MANY users to leave for certain other ISP’s whose cost is $10 to $30 less expensive for the same speed.

4. Many people are fed-up of being locked into a year or multi-year contract with high termination fees. MANY leave Bell for the non-contract wholesalers.

5. Many users have called Bell “support” and asked why their internet is slow, as seen in the forums. Bell-Sympatico’s support techs always seemed to claim there was no throttling, leaving the customer to try and figure out why their high-speed high-priced internet is low speed, in the process frustrating MANY who later found out the truth and who left for the wholesaler due to the lies/lack of knowledge by Sympatico support.

6. MANY people leave Bell in disgust aover the throttling, which MANY claim is anti-competitive.

7. Wholesale ISP’s have ways to combat the throttle using multi-link-point-to-point (MLPPP) protocol or an SSH server for customer use, which Bell doesn’t support or offer. Thus, MANY users leave for this unthrottled avenue which is supported by the wholesalers.

8. When Bell throttled itself, MANY left for the wholesale ISP. This needs to be mentioned because Bell shows data back to 2007, hence the growth in those months.

9. The low allocated bandwidth and the monetization of bandwidth that Bell has started also forces the customer to weigh in on two factors:

A) Stay with Bell and pay through the nose for bandwidth or,

B) Move to a wholesaler who is less expensive and has unlimited bandwidth

10. Points 1 to 9 are so evident and overwhelming in the forums, and Bell lost so many customers due to the above, that Bell executives themselves spammed a team of Bell employees in that forum to try and halt the exodus of users from its own Bell-Sympatico service. Bell paid employees to work the public forums shouldn’t be forgotten.

11. One need only needs to look at all the Bell speed, support, service, cost and disconnection problems in Bell’s own forums found at:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sympatdirect, http://www.supportcommunity.sympatico.ca/pe/forums/displaymsgboardlist.jsp and their French forum, http://www.supportcommunity.sympatico.ca/pe/index.jsp?channelID=10100101.

This shows just how MANY users are upset with the Bell-Sympatico experience.

12. Repeat the above for Rogers Internet, Telus, 3web, Videotron, Cogeco and other ISP’s and you get MANY switching to the wholesaler. The most popular of which is TekSavvy.

Paragraph 159 and table 17 may be true, BUT, Bell Canada KNOWS why this is —- Better service, Better support and A WAY TO DEFEAT THE THROTTLE.

That’s why we have growth in the wholesale ISP business, and a loss for Bell-Sympatico.

In addition, Bell claims, “it is clear that the Company’s network management practices have not lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the Internet access market”.

Of course it has!

If we review the forums (once again), we’ll see many not wanting to move to another ISP since they’re throttled as well.

And Bell knows this. Their support agents are trained to tell the customers this when people call and say they want to leave. Thus they retain the customer and prevent more from leaving to the wholesale competition.
It also has to be added that in many areas, only Bell and Rogers are the sole internet providers. In many areas, it’s either one or the other.

With a silent user revolt against Bell and Rogers, and since both these companies throttle, many left for the wholesaler. But with Bell forcing a throttle on the wholesale side, they retain their customer base while eliminating the wholesale competition as an option for unthrottled, unfettered internet access.

This is the tip of the iceberg and Bell knows very well that if the ISPs are left unthrottled, they’ll gain even more ground and even MORE customers .

All this makes me wonder who this “GAS customer in question” is.

Who might the “GAS customer in question” in question be?

IMHO, the biggest target since the beginning of this  throttling battle has been one particular ISP (GAS customer), —-TekSavvy Solutions.

People have been dumping Bell-Sympatico for TekSavvy, one of the few ISP’s with an open and  transparent business model and who’s owners & CEO’s are accessible  to their customers.

It’s my belief that if Bell were to utilize any particular wholesale ISP’s  private information in a filing, TekSavvy would be the one —- it’d be the ISP to shoot down, its own private network data used as ammunition.

This latest filing has Bell Canada agreeing to the time extension CAIP asked for because of the sheer size of the Bell Canada filing.

Bell, but it whined it (Bell) only needed one day,  and CAIP asked for three days plus the weekend.

> Start snide remark:

Maybe Bell would like to donate some of their lawyers/money to CAIP?

Lets not play games here. Bell is a monster of a company with almost  unlimited legal and other resources at its disposal.

Do it really need to moan about this?

> End snide remark

And stay tuned.

Ottawa Gal - p2pnet
[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 ) ]

[NOTE: This post  was revised at 6:30 AM Pacific.]

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