CRTC traffic throttling consultation
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has opened a 30-day online consultation for views on Internet traffic management practices, a corporate euphemism for the bandwidth throttling scandal.
ISPs, with Bell Canada and Rogers to the front, wrongly claim a small group of P2P file sharers are hogging inordinate amounts of bandwidth, forcing the providers to shackle user accounts.
“The CRTC is examining the current practices of ISPs operating in Canada, as well as those that could be adopted in the future,” it says, going on »»»
“The proceeding’s main objective is to determine whether and to what extent such practices are appropriate under the Telecommunications Act.
Through the online consultation, the public is invited to discuss various topics and questions related to Internet traffic management practices. The topics for discussion are:
- the impact of these practices on the user experience and on innovation
- the different approaches to Internet traffic management
- the role of the CRTC in relation to Internet traffic management practices, and
- the disclosure of Internet traffic management practices by ISPs.
The online consultation will close at midnight EST on April 30, 2009, and can be found at http://isppractices.econsultation.ca.
Stay tuned.
(Thanks, Marc)
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April 1st, 2009 at 4:24 am
History makes it is difficult to get excited about the CRTC’s 30-day online ‘consultation’. The Commission’s standard ‘consultation’ process has often been nothing more than a public relations exercise, one used by appointees at the quasi-judicial regulatory tribunal to try to legitimize inequitable and unfair decisions made for industry interests. The CRTC has been suffering from regulatory capture for years, more importantly, Canadian citizens have been suffering as a result of its compliance to corprate interests. What is required is an independent public hearing into the operations and practices of the CRTC, not a hearing by the Commission into Internet traffic management practices.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Damn it, Keith!
Ya beat me to it!
: )
I’ve been screaming for the death of the CRTC for years.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:05 am
Thanks Devil’s Advocate – but in my haste I made two typos. However, my errors pale in comparison to the actions of the CRTC Commissioners, appointees pretending to stand up for the public interest while really being more motivated to please corporate executives who hire many of them after their stint at the Commission. From Keith Spicer to Konrad von Finckenstein, the Commission has been a reign of error and deception, an important tool used to foster the undue influence of corporations in broadcasting and telecommunications policy. It is the Commission which requires a ‘throttling’. But I am not advocating for the death of the CRTC. To the contrary, in my opinion what is required is the birth of genuine democratic public institution to properly safeguard the public interest. And make no mistake, the online campaign being mounted in relation to this throttling issue has the Commission worried. The last thing that these corporate and political proxies want is any real degree of public scrutiny into their process or decisions. I think it is going to be an interesting hearing.
April 5th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
I really don’t think the CRTC is worried in the least about any public outcry as long as we have this Bell-CRTC-Government protection racket going on. Bell will continue to do whatever the fuck it wants, while the CRTC pretends it wants to hear from us, and the Government will continue to ignore the whole thing.
The only way I see this ending is with Bell going so far into debt that it falls on its face and hangs the brunt of our communications infrastructure along with it.
April 6th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Yes, it is a racket – a type of crony capitalism which illustrates the need for structural change. However, what is required is collective action, not passively waiting for the corrupt system to simply collapse on its accord. The upcoming public hearing offers a good opportunity to raise awareness of the CRTC’s industry-bias and openly challenge it.