Teksavvy – rgbFilter

What the CRTC taketh, the CRTC giveth (to Bell)

November 3, 2010November 12, 2010 Doug Groves Bell, CRTC, net neutrality, Teksavvy, throttling, UBB, Usage Based Billing2 Comments

It was only two months ago that the CRTC made a surprisingly positive ruling in helping innovation in the Canadian internet marketplace, though I was somewhat skeptical. In August they announced that incumbent DSL and cable providers, aka the big guys (Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw, Videotron), had to provide 3rd party ISPs with access to their networks, at a price level of 10% above cost. Part of this reasoning was in the ruling itself… Agreed that a duopoly of telephone and cable retail Internet access services is insufficient, and that…

Canadian telcos to share high speed networks with 3rd party providers

September 1, 2010August 31, 2010 Doug Groves Bell, CRTC, ISP, net neutrality, ruling, Teksavvy, Telus2 Comments

Back in 2008, the CRTC ruled that internet wholesalers should have fair access to higher speed data networks controlled by incumbents such as Bell and Telus. Partly due to growth in high speed cable internet, the incumbent telcos haves have been resisting providing the high speed access to 3rd party wholesalers, to maintain a competitive edge with their cable counterparts. The original 2008 ruling was challenged and sent to federal cabinet, which sent it back to the CRTC. On Monday, the CRTC reaffirmed its position, which with means independents will…

Usage-based billing okayed by CRTC

May 6, 2010May 6, 2010 Doug Groves Acanac, Bell, canada, CRTC, Internet, online rights, Teksavvy2 Comments

The CRTC has unsurprisingly sided with Bell, and is allowing the big blue telco to go ahead with it’s usage-based billing scheme, and yes, scheme is the most appropriate word here. Not only does it mean that Bell gets to charge it’s own customers, who are already paying through the nose for parltry data caps, but now big blue can hit 3rd party suppliers, like TekSavvy and Acanac with fees that look downright preposterous. Bell has complained about traffic congestion, caused mostly by heavy file sharing, but as their own…

CRTC ruling merely “a framework”

October 21, 2009 Doug Groves Bell, CRTC, Teksavvy, throttling11 Comments

The CRTC has finally ruled in the long standing Bell throttling case. The ruling is a bit of a mish-mash of both good and bad, and a fair bit of haziness. Although there is a requirement of transparency from the major ISPs to both their retail and wholesale customers, it looks like Internet Traffic Management Practices (ITMPs) such as throttling will likely continue at least until the first complaint rolls into the CRTC (which should happen pretty fast). The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today introduced a new framework…

Bell’s Own Data Shatters P2P Red Herring

June 26, 2008February 2, 2011 Doug Groves Bell, CRTC, online rights, Teksavvy10 Comments

About a week ago, the CRTC demanded that Bell release to the public by June 23rd information that would prove it’s claim that P2P throttling was having a negative impact on it’s network. Some, but not all, of that information has been made public. Many details are being kept from public view for ‘competitive’ reasons. Even the scant evidence released shows exactly how flimsy Bell’s case is. One would assume that the company would release the most damaging evidence, but their claim is that over a 2 month period, 2-5%…

Canadian Throttling: It’s Not Just For P2P

April 4, 2008April 17, 2009 Doug Groves Bell, Teksavvy, throttling10 Comments

The issue of net neutrality is quickly coming to a head here in Canada. It’s been long known that the largest cable internet provider Rogers has been throttling P2P activity, but since the announcement a couple of weeks ago that Bell would start throttling P2P on it’s 3rd party wholesale lines (which would affect DSL users not subscribed to Bell’s Sympatico service), there has been a lot of action. What has been largely overlooked is that not only is Bell throttling P2P, but they are, if the evidence is accurate,…