Bell Finally Responds To Throttled DSL Resellers
It took a while, but Bell who has caused no end of grief for itself, its DSL resellers, and customers of those DSL Resellers has now come up with an official response to the outcry caused by the throttling of things like BitTorrent. Check out this paragraph:
“Bell’s congestion and bandwidth management solutions apply to our entire DSL PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet) network, including both retail and wholesale services. To ensure optimal use of Internet network resources for all of our customers Bell has implemented Data Packet Inspection (DPI) on P2P file sharing and bit torrent applications. DPI identifies the packet mapping, but does not monitor, track, or access the data of your customers who are using P2P applications. Your customers can continue to use P2P services but they will not work as fast during peak periods. All other application functionality is not affected.”
This is dumb move given that the CBC for example is using BitTorrent to distribute shows like The Next Great Prime Minister. Not to mention that BitTorrent has lots of other legitimate uses (such as downloading LINUX software for example). To me it seems like Bell is trying to level the playing field between it’s Sympatico High Speed Internet offering that has throttled BitTorrent for some time and DSL resellers who don’t. After all, BitTorrent users are fleeing Bell (not to mention Rogers who does the same thing) to ISP’s like Teksavvy and Acanac because they don’t throttle anything (not to mention that their customer service is reportedly better than Bell which is not hard to believe from my experiences with Bell), which has to hurt Bell’s bottom line (even though Bell resells DSL service through these companies, they would make less money). Another possibility is that Bell is trying to cut out “rich media” (aka video, audio, etc) from sources other than CTVGlobeMedia (which Bell owns 20% of). It’s kind of an odd coincidence that they throttle BitTorrent within days of The Next Great Prime Minister being made available on BitTorrent. Perhaps I’ve watched one too many episodes of X-Files, but it’s an odd coincidence.
In either case, this is not good for Canadians who access the Internet. This needs to stop sooner rather than later, otherwise Canada in the long term will regret it.
December 6, 2008 at 1:43 am
look for independent long range wireless isps getting their upstream from satellite. it’s on the way, we just need to keep the CRTC, which does nothing but the exact opposite of its legislated mission statement, from denying yet another service or competitive price to us.
November 28, 2009 at 5:41 am
I am deeply concerned about Bell Canada’s recent announcement that it will make its practice of throttling official. I have felt the full effect of their throttling myself and I am not even one of their customers.
Canada does not have strict enforceable net neutrality legislation and so there is very little structure in place to prevent the big ISPs from discriminating by speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.
I am being throttled at 10kbps, sometimes I can hit 60kbps. I am on ADSL with Radioactif, a reseller, and I used to be able to hit 405kbps in best conditions. Bell did not provide No warning, No penalties, No abuse notice. And they are throttling me. It’s completely unacceptable. If it was in Europe, there would be Riots in the streets. Bell and all other major ISP are abusing their power and their customers that have no other alternative. It is an infringement of human rights.
“Human rights are “basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.” “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and RIGHTS. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” -Article 1
They abuse their power to profit themselves and only themselves. The fact that I am not even one of their customer and I am being controlled, monitored and denied full access to what I am paying every month and am entitled to. What make it right to allow a reseller to sell me a service that the Network owner block at 10kbps. I’m paying for high speed. No download limits and pay 30$ a month for a service that is a third of a 9.99$ 56kbps Dial-up Connection. So I am paying 3 times the price for 30% of what I should be rightfully getting. I am literally getting robbed.
Bell is using it’s monopoly over DSL infrastructure to restrict competition in the industry. They also affect the broadcasting industry and the right to share free computer software. Freeware are open to everybody without discrimination. What purpose is it to have access to a Linux distribution when you cannot download it because it would take me Months to download a Free open source distribution when it could take me days, even hours at normal pace. Bell’s alliances and vertical integration with software and broadcasting interests are a direct conflict of interest.
I am outraged that Canada does not have a policy to protect my ability to communicate and access information freely on the Internet and urge you to take action on this matter immediately before it is too late. It is your responsibility and purpose to represent the people that elected you and your party to defend their rights and freedom.
Sincerely,
February 12, 2010 at 12:49 am
Well written and a great read 🙂