Tele2 fined for traffic throttling. Why not Bell?
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Something stinks in Canada.
In fact, ’stinks’ is the wrong word.
It reeks to high heaven.
Bell Canada has been getting away with royally screwing its own customers by ‘managing’ their accounts without their knowledge or permission to suit its own business operations.
The practice is called ‘traffic shaping,’ a innocent-seeming euphemism for drastically limiting flow of traffic on user accounts.
Bell claims it’s forced to do so because a small number of people who share files with each other online are over-using bandwidth.
No worries, you say? Bell will have covered that in its contracts?
But it didn’t and it’s continuing to ‘manage’ accounts while the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) dithers and waffles and sucks its thumb.
And yet in Italy, Tele2 has been fined €60,000 (about $97,000 CAD) for doing exactly the same thing.
“After a year of investigating, Italy’s AntiTrust watchdog found that users were signing up for ADSL with Tele2 because they were attracted by low prices,” says The Inquirer, quoting Repubblica. [http://tinyurl.com/dkv38d - Google translation.]
“However they found that if they tried to use P2P software their connection would drop to zero or end up extremely slow,” it says, going on:
“When it spoke to the press Tele2 denied that it was blocking P2P customers but was slowing down the network speed limit to make P2P impractical during certain times of the day.”
Does that seem familiar?
But, “What seems to have miffed the watchdog was that while the telco was making these statements to the media, they were not telling customers anything,” says the story.
“It had not written what it was doing in a clear statement on its site or on a contract,” it says.
As Ottawa Gal, who first broke the news of Bell Canada’s throttling, says, “I find it funny how Bell was never charged with anything at all for throttling users and wholesalers without notice.
“All Bell got was a slap on the wrist.”
Something isn’t right here, she says, wondering:
“Do we have a Canadian Gov ‘Anti-Trust’ watchdog here in Canada?
“And please don’t tell me its the Canadian Competition Bureau who told everyone who complained to them that they won’t do anything and to go to the CRTC instead.”
Stay tuned.
But it didn’t – p2pnet traffic shaping digest, April 19, 2008
The Inquirer – Tele2 throttled P2P traffic, January 22, 2009
Repubblica – Tele2 limita il p2p sulla sua rete ma ai clienti non lo dice: multa, January 21, 2009
Canadian Competition Bureau – Bell Canada: Scott and Katz, November 24, 2008
sucks its thumb - ‘Public’ Bell throttling hearing censored, January 19, 20
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January 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 am
Don’t just blame Bell,. Rogers has been doing it for longer, to the point of throttling all encrypted communications. And as the recent report remind us, most of the Canadian ISP sare
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Makes me wonder if the people themselves can file and anti-trust lawsuit against the very gov angencies formed to protect us!
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:45 pm
To show just how crooked Canada and its agencies are, when CAIP went to bat about this very same thing, the CRTC made CAIP pay for the proceedings (while our competition bureau, aka “watch-dog”, did squat and our industry minister brushed it off)!
I find it totally unbelievable.
I bet this story makes the rounds and makes the heads of these Canadian Gov agencies giggle as they have their hands out for “political funding” from the Canadian Telecom industry.
This story should go to the CBC
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
So you complain to the CCTS
the CCTS tells you to goto the CRTC who tells you to talk to the Canadian Competition Bureau who tells you to talk to the CRTC.
YA got the spin perfectly now.
HERES what i say. Start tossing purchased farmers eggs at bell offices employees and workers until they get the hint they stink like green eggs and YES throw old ham at them too.
I have just been informed that bells head office jerked my phone line off that i paid for in december and when i needed to call 911 for an ambulance after bleeding 500 -1000 feet all over the road to get home in freezing sub zero temperatures that i could not call 911 cause of these types a games bell canada plays.
MUST SOMEONE DIE TO GET THIS COMPANY FIXED?
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I thought we went through this chronoss. I drove by your dump right after you posted early this month and there was no trail of blood. Why don’t you try to pay your bills and not steal Bells pvr’s. Maybe that is why Bell repairmen will spy on your Internet use by looking over your shoulder when they come to fix your phone then go downstairs and whisper into their cell phones. Or Bell vans block your street and prevent you from going to fill out the small claims court papers. I don’t know why this happens when you claim to have an IQ of 159, or credentials and experience of 50 jobs (ALL in the USA) ranging from 30K USD to 100K USD to start. The jobs range from flying around on planes knowing IT. I suppose it is because of being attacked twice and requiring head surgery.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:36 pm
CHRoNoSS said: “Start tossing purchased farmers eggs at bell offices employees and workers”
k, well, I don’t condone tossing or hitting anyone with anything.
Maybe the hate you have should be looked after by professionals?
CHRoNoSS said: I have just been informed that bells head office jerked my phone line off
No. You haven’t “just” been informed your phone line got cut. A month or so ago you stated you canceled all services with Bell.
CHRoNoSS said: “MUST SOMEONE DIE TO GET THIS COMPANY FIXED?”
I suggest you call your local police department and repeat those words to them. Then take it from there…
Have you contacted legal aid yet?
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I’m starting to think chronos is a Bell employee who goes after any Bell related article to drag it down.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
No chronoss is not an employee. Check his posts in dslreports.com, he has along dysfunctional bipolar relationship with Bell Canada, and no wonder, read about some of the truly bizarre and covert operations Bell has engaged against him. I have worked for Bell for years and had no idea they had these rogue agents, or possibly sanctioned agents, on their payroll. Poor chronoss even had the OPP block Hwy 7 so he couldn’t get to a rally in Ottawa, all perpetrated by Bell no doubt.