A coalition of Canadian Internet service providers is calling on federal regulators to issue a stop order to Bell Canada, saying the way the company manages Web traffic on its networks violates the law.
On Thursday, the Canadian Association of Internet Providers filed a formal application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, demanding the regulator issue an immediate “cease and desist” order to Bell to stop the telecom giant from “throttling” or “shaping” the traffic on the wholesale networks it sells to smaller ISPs.
“Our members don't believe that Bell Canada has the contractual right to do what they are doing, to interfere with the traffic that we pay them to deliver to us and that we layer our services onto,” association chair Tom Copeland said.
Canada's largest ISPs – including Bell and Rogers Communications Inc. – employ so-called shaping techniques to manage the flow of online activity. The big ISPs slow down certain kinds of Internet activity – usually peer-to-peer and torrent traffic, used for large file transfers – while giving priority to other data. The companies argue that large files clog the networks, leading to slower connection speeds for other users.
Last week it was revealed that Bell was in the process of rolling out traffic-shaping policies on the network space that it sells to other ISPs, in addition to its own network management techniques. The announcement caused a backlash from many independent ISPs.
Bell will contest the application, according to the company's chief of regulatory affairs, Mirko Bibic.
“The issue is that 95 per cent of our subscribers are negatively impacted by a very small minority of Internet users, so we're taking reasonable steps to manage that issue,” he said. “In what we feel is a very objective, appropriate and certainly legal manner.”
Mr. Bibic said the agreements Bell has in place with independent ISPs allow the company to take appropriate steps to manage or shape the traffic on its networks. Traffic coming from independent ISPs is treated no differently than its own Sympatico traffic, he said.
“Wholesale customers and retail customers are being treated exactly the same, so there is no issue here with respect to unjust discrimination,” he said. “Our tariffs allow us to protect the integrity of our network and improve the overall performance of the Internet for all users.”
In the 56-page application, CAIP charges that Bell plans to eliminate its “unlimited Internet usage plans,” which currently charge users a set fee for access to the Internet, and instead will begin billing customers based on how much bandwidth they use in a month.
CAIP says that many of its member companies offer packages with no bandwidth restrictions, and that Bell is worried it could lose heavy-use customers to these competing providers.
Included in the application is a document, dated Mar. 13, which CAIP says is an internal memo that was circulated among Bell employees. The document lays out a plan for Bell to phase out a maximum $30 charge that customers could incur for going over their 30 gigabytes of allotted bandwidth. Under the new plan, there would be no maximum over-use fee, meaning there would be “no monthly billing limit.”
Bell has not confirmed the legitimacy of the document. Mr. Bibic couldn't say whether the Mar. 13 document was in fact an internal Bell memo.
“It is evident from these statements that Bell is attempting to leverage its customers' familiarity with other usage-based billing schemes, such as those used in relation to mobile phone and long-distance service, in order to shift to a billing structure that it believes is more lucrative,” CAIP writes in the application.
Mr. Copeland said many of the association's member companies began hearing complaints from their users about slower Internet traffic speeds on Mar. 14.
“We think that if it is a coincidence, it's one hell of a coincidence,” he said. “If this was planned it clearly shows that Bell wants to disadvantage its competition so that when they remove this current billing process that they have, they will no doubt also remove the throttling on their side of the fence, because if you're introducing usage-based billing, why discourage use?”
Mr. Bibic dismissed the claim that Bell's throttling policies are an attempt to put independent ISPs at a disadvantage, but would not comment on any future pricing plans the company may have.
“This isn't, as suggested by some, an attempt to harm wholesale ISPs to further our retail Sympatico business,” he said. “It is about network-managing by a provider during periods of congestion.”
Mr. Bibic said that Bell only shapes peer-to-peer traffic and only during peak usage hours.
“This is only affecting one traffic type and it is not targeting any particular content providers,” he said. “You can still use peer-to-peer, you just can't use it as fast during peak periods. I think that also addresses the unjust discrimination allegation.”
This is not the first application the CRTC has recently received on the subject of net neutrality. Last Friday, the National Union of Public and General Employees sent a letter to the CRTC demanding that it investigate the impact of traffic shaping by ISPs on Canadian Internet users.
This week, Industry Minister Jim Prentice sidestepped questions in the House of Commons regarding the government's position on the issue of telecom companies restricting the flow of certain types of data. Mr. Prentice said the government was monitoring the situation and is waiting to see how the issue unfolds.
“We have a well advanced Internet system in this country. It is not publicly regulated,” he said on Tuesday.
“At this point in time, we will continue to leave the matter between consumers on the one hand and Internet service providers on the other,” he said.
The debate over the unwritten code of net neutrality – advocates of which contend that all Internet traffic must be treated equally – has been a hot button topic in the U.S. for more than a year, but has only recently become an issue in Ottawa.
Mr. Copeland said CAIP represents 55 ISPs with a total customer base of about 100,000.
© The Globe and Mail
