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Computing Internet 

Toronto Rally to “Stop the Meter”

Tired of having nothing to be politically passionate about like your Egyptian and Tunisian friends? Tired of worrying about Seasonal Affective Disorder during the height of Seasonal Affective Disorder season? Tired of being pushed around by Big Telco Money and Small Minded Lapdog Bureaucrats at the CRTC? Tired of rhetorical questions starting with the word “Tired” and using caps to make Tired Cliches look like Big Concepts? Of course you are and so am I. Together we can go to the next paragraph.

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

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…

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CRTC decision already having effect?

Last week, the CRTC released it’s initial net neutrality decision, which was quickly followed by a wide range of opinions, from pie-in-the-sky to “The sky is falling“. More reasonable responses suggested that the ruling wasn’t bad, and the head of a 3rd party ISP or two even said it was pretty good overall, with some problems. That being said, one of the major issues was bandwidth throttling, and there were guidelines put in place that would restrict how and when ISPs could do so.  Less than a week after the…

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CRTC ruling merely “a framework”

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…

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Episode 018 – Net talk

It’s an extra large dose of rgb this episode, as we discuss Google’s new OS, as well as a number of new developments from the company that will ‘do no evil’. We also talk about the new high speed initiatives from the major telecoms, Microsoft’s new branding strategies, and much more. Don’t forget that the Toronto Zombie Walk is holding a Fiendraiser tonight, Saturday July 18th.

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Net Neutrality In Canada: An Update

Last week, the CRTC began conducting its hearing into the status of a number of issues facing Canada’s digital future, not the least of which is throttling practices.  Since it’s launch just about all the major players, from telecoms to creative associations and private individuals have all had their say. There’s still at least one more day to go as we all await to hear from Bell (who’s 3rd party throttling helped propel the issue to the forefront), but in the past week there’s been some interesting stances, as well…

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Canadian Throttling: It’s Not Just For P2P

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,…

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