p2pnet - rss feed: Now Bell Canada wants to throttle ISP clients
p2pnet news view P2P | Freedom:- As p2pnet first reported yesterday, Bell Canada is, “moving to impose download limits on customers of independent internet providers, an act the smaller firms say is designed to eliminate broadband competition and prevent the introduction of new television services,” says the CBC.
“The Montreal-based company, which cut its own Sympatico customers off from unlimited downloading last year, has proposed extending that plan to firms renting portions of its network in order to provide their own services,” says the story.
“That would include a number of smaller wholesale ISP customers such as Chatham, Ont.-based TekSavvy Solutions Inc., Cobourg, Ont.-based Eagle.ca, Mississauga-based Acanac Inc. and Ottawa-based National Capital Freenet.”
Said p2pnet’s Ottawa Gal, “While Bell Canada launched a frontal assault on the wholesale competition by forcibly throttling customers, it’s now opened two new assault lines aimed at back-dooring wholesale business models and opening another anti-competitive fight that could see all wholesalers customers not only throttled, but limited to only 2-gigs to 60-gigs per month.”
She quotes Paul of Acanac Inc, a wholesale ISP, saying on dslreports »»»
Just got back from the conference and here is what Bell is proposing.
512Kbps service will be limited to 2GB per month
5Mbps service will be limited to 60GB per monthThey did not disclose what the overcharges will be, but don’t expect it to be cheap. Simply put DSL as we know it right now will no longer exist.
“Usage Based Billing (UBB) is not a carrier class method of doing business,” CAIP chairman and president Tom Copeland told p2pnet.
Short for Canadian Association of Internet Providers), CAIP represents 55 smaller ISPs.
“Carriers buy capacity on networks and they utilize that capacity in a manner that allows for the efficient delivery of products and services, says Copeland, going on »»»
The wholesale vendor of such a facility shouldn’t interfere with the delivery of the product or service nor should they apply what amounts to a surcharge when an end user decides to make use of the product or service.”
If UBB is a panacea for traffic congestion problems and network investment woes then let’s remove speed profiles and traffic shaping from the equation.
Let traffic flow. Allow independent ISPs to find and grow new markets and deliver products and services in a way that fulfills the needs of consumers.
Allow true and innovative competition in the high-speed market. Don’t turn all providers into the same flavour… vanilla.”
Says TekSavvy president Rocky Gaudreaul »»»
They’re attempting to reduce is to mini-Sympaticos!
It’s clear corporate Bell is attempting a business-wide strategy, but in doing so, they fail to realize we’re not retail customers and they have very serious obligations to regulated, hands off (common carrier), non-internet services.
This is major abuse, and decision-makers at both the CRTC and the government need to now step in and make things right.
On dslreports, “Bell is like a Detoit auto company which lures in customers with basic cars, but generates its biggest profit margins by bait-n-switching buyers to more expensive models,” posts Walter Dnes, continuing »»»
With the recent upgrade of the “Lite” profile to 512 kbits SDSL, I believe that many people have come to the same conclusion as me, i.e. 512 kbits is perfectly sufficient. The result is that many new signups are going for 512K, rather than 5 or 6 megabits, and quite a few people are downgrading their 5 or 6 megabit connections to 512 kbits. This will result in reduced profits, and more importantly, reduced bonuses for the Board of Directors.
The usual reaction would be to cripple Sympatico’s “Lite” service to the point of uselessness, to drive subscribers to Sympatico’s more expensive options. Sympatico was probably telling the truth that the average user uses 10 gigs/month or less. Therefore, the bandwidth had to be reduced to something utterly ridiculous, like 2 gigs. However, the marketeers remembered that last time they tried such a stunt, people left in droves for Sympatico’s competitors, which hadn’t made followed Sympatico’s footsteps. Sympatico realized that they would have make their competitors’ Lite offering just as unattractive as Sympatico’s. Hence the limits on reseller users’ bandwidth.
Meanwhile, Bell has, “taken several steps toward eliminating the smaller ISPs’ ability to compete over the past few months, the firms say,” the CBC states.
“Bell began slowing the speeds of its own Sympatico subscribers using peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent last November, then extended the practice to its wholesale customers in March, prompting a dispute that is before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission,” says the story.
“The smaller companies, through the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, say Bell is breaking telecommunications law through its speed “throttling” and have asked the CRTC to force an end to the practice. CAIP has also said Bell is forcing the throttling onto its members so that they aren’t able to offer a competitive advantage, or faster speeds, than Sympatico.
“Bell says its hand was forced in introducing the throttling and download limits because of growing internet usage and abuse of peer-to-peer networks by a small percentage of customers.”
Adds the CBC »»»
Smaller ISPs were given access to the networks of phone companies in the first place because the incumbents held a natural infrastructure monopoly, which was initially built through taxpayer funds when they were government-owned.
Louro, posting on DSLreports.com, said the only good news for customers is that the download limits —- if they are imposed in January, as proposed by Bell —- will not affect current clients. So long as customers do not switch ISPs, they will continue to have unlimited downloading.
He also said Acanac is exploring the possibility of allying with other small ISPs to install its own equipment in Bell’s communications offices, which would allow them to bypass Bell’s forced download limits.
Critics say Bell is in effect acting as a Net censor by forcing bandwidth management on its customers, users and ISPs both.
Interestingly, it’s a major Canadian sponsor of the upcoming Beijing Olympics with China, the host country, increasingly accused of overt censoring practices.
Stay tuned.
.
.Stumble It!
p2pnet - New Bell Canada throttling plan: Goodbye DSL, July 31, 2008
CBC -Bell moves to limit internet downloads of competitor ISPs, July 31, 2008
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August 2nd, 2008 at 10:04 am
Hello all, It is time that the Public shows Bell its Power, any Sympatico subscriber should cancel Bell services, the goal should be an independent Provider which supplies than to the ISP’s. Bell is not a big company its just a small provider with losing further ground.
All the story’s of limiting the Internet due to too Peer to Peer is absolutely not true, compare Europe DSL 25M / and unlimited, so if they can do this so should we. Bell wants profit over profit, but does not develop and upgrade its Network, in order to handle the demand. The cheaper way for them is reduce the traffic. It is time for the CRTC to wake up look around and put Bell in its place, as well for the Canadian Government to enforce Laws to restructure the system of communication which was paid by the Taxpayer in the first place.
As mentioned earlier Create a Main supplier, which is only to sell services directly to ISP and not to the end user. Such company sells their services the Bandwidth in Bulk and the wholesalers distributes its services according to his service packages, Thats how you create competition. This way Bell can take care of its own clients and has not the opportunity to harass users and wholesalers.
This can all be pushed through if everybody stands up against Bell and the CRTC as well the Government.
August 2nd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I worked at a third party call center taking bell tech and billing calls for QC and ON customers. The whole thing is run like a joke. There is no acocuntability. A rep could upgrade you to the highest tier wihtout even talking to you in order to get his commsion, and you would NOT be able to get out of the charges.
If the rep put in notes how its meant to look, your paying up.
And dont get me started on how they asked us to handle questions about p2p throttling.
As a Canadian I am awfuly ashamed of Bell.
August 2nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Please - how did they ask you to handle questions about p2p throttling?
Cheers!
Jon
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
they essentially said to deny deny deny
We could not say “throttle” or “traffic shaping”
If they ask if its in the terms in conditions that Bell could shape their traffic we had to say that the ToC It explained Bell is responsible for maintaining the network integrity. Of course under that logic they can do anything if its in the name of improving the network.
All we could say was “In an effort to provide consistent service to our customers we ensure that network resources are shared fairly.”
We could not mention or confirm anything related to how we identify traffic in order to shape it.
this was about 2 months ago. I’m not still working there so i don’t have the exact wording, just going off memory. But every rep had to sign that they read and understood the document that explained how to handle calls about this.
Just made me sick half the bullshit they tried to feed us, let alone their customers.
Example, If you call in and have a strong accent, reps commonly upsell them knowing full well that they didnt get the customer to understand everything involved. They get a yes and put it on. Makes me sick.
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Expect Bell Canada to get away with everything it is proposing. The Canadian government pays much lip-service to increasing competition for Canadians, but usually enacts laws that protect existing monopolies. And the Canadian people are a sheltered flock of sheep, so they won’t protest too much.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:23 am
“Now Bell Canada wants to throttle ISP clients” ??.. not “wants”, more like “already does”. My isp is AEI and I am throttled.
August 6th, 2008 at 4:21 am
“Hello all, It is time that the Public shows Bell its Power, any Sympatico subscriber should cancel Bell services, the goal should be an independent Provider which supplies than to the ISP’s.”
The problem is that Bell Canada owns the lines. When smaller ISPs buy the bandwidth wholesale from them, Bell limits them. Or didn’t you read the article? In effect, it will kill the small ISPs, because Bell will make them useless over time. Unless people build an entirely new network not owned by Bell Canada, what you propose makes no sense.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I have set a termination date with Bell for my internet and since I did this, for the last week my p2p downloads have been throttled to 30 kbs 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Obviously throttling has nothing to do with heavy use times of the day unless Sunday night at 2 A.M. for example is a “heavy use” period. Even if smaller ISP’s are throttled by Bell I would prefer it if the majority of the cost of my internet subscription went to ANYONE other than Bell. Also, when I cancelled my internet that was fine with them. When I cancelled my Bell satellite subscription and switched to Starchoice last year, that also was fine with them. I plan shortly on switching my landline phone and cell phone to other companies and I’m sure that will be fine with them also. That is over $200.00 each month they have lost from just one customer. I wish everyone would do the same.