BC says No! to traffic throttling
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- The British Columbia government, through Network BC, has now come in on the Canadian network neutrality argument on the side of the growing number of Canadians, users and businesses both, who are opposing traffic throttling, and all it leads to.
“Bell and Rogers currently use special software to sniff out mainly peer-to-peer file sharing protocols such as BitTorrent and put them in the equivalent of an Internet slow lane during peak periods of usage,” the Toronto Star delicately sums it up.
Submissions to the forthcoming CRTC net neutrality hearing include submissions from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (privacy and DPI), Pelmorex (wireless net neutrality) and Canadian creator groups (P2P for distribution), says Michael Geist, going on »»»
While the submission from the Open Internet Coalition has attracted some media interest, I think several others deserve attention. Interestingly, the B.C. Government, through Network B.C., has also jumped into the fray. According to their submission (zip file):
Net neutrality should be accepted as the bedrock upon which the Internet rests. Net neutrality also depends heavily on investment in robust and scalable network infrastructure. However, aggressive traffic shaping practices contributes little to network infrastructure investment and only leads to a short-term false sense of security that existing and legacy networks can be squeezed to meet future capacity requirements. Further, the use of aggressive traffic shaping practices potentially defers what should be ongoing network upgrade practices thus potentially leading to the need for massive network investments in the future.
Starting from this position, the B.C. government argues that:
Aggressive traffic shaping as a net management practice, particularly where an ISP is reliant on a solitary Gateway Service Provider, is antithetical to the policy objectives outlines in section 7(a)(b)(g)(f) and (h) on the Telecommunications Act.
The submission is important since it highlights the growing prominence of the provinces in Internet access issues. As more provinces invest in networks to provide access to all their residents, the net neutrality issue could attract attention in federal – provincial matters.
Advertising company Google is among other heavyweights who’ve decided it’s in their best corporate interests to stop ISP traffic shaping practices.
Click here for the BC CRTC submission.
Stay tuned.
Michael Geist – B.C. Government Voices Support for Net NeutralityFebruary 25, 2009
traffic throttling – p2pnet traffic shaping digest, April 19, 2008
Toronto Star – February 25, 2009
traffic shaping – Google joins Canadian anti-throttling fightFebruary 25, 2009
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February 26th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Why this sudden interest in what is going on in Canada? Just curious.
February 26th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
@RW said:
“Why this sudden interest in what is going on in Canada? Just curious.”
Sudden? Maybe if you just got out of a 2 year hibernation and just opened your computer for the first time since, you will see this is not “sudden”. Its been being posted here for a long time.
There is a neutrality debate that have been going on for a while (that’s just one part of it).
If there is something going on in your country that isn’t covered here and you feel it should be, feel free to post links to it and Jon can write up on it maybe to raise an awareness.
Right now, there is a fight in Canada that involves taking away charter rights, liberties, privacy, what you can do on-line, when you can do it, how you can do it, how certain people want you to pay more, and much much more.
…and yes, it involves P2P as well. :p
Its more or less a cash grab and removal of rights and a stifling of innovation on the net in Canukistan that some corporations, Cartels, and government entities want in.
If in, Cuba and North Korea will have freer internet access.
February 26th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
^^ Thanks.
And by the way, p2pnet is Canadian.
Cheers!