Bell irks ISPs with new throttling policy

by: Matt Hartley

Rocky Gaudrault wants Bell Canada to take its hands off his customers' data.

The chief executive officer of Teksavvy Solutions Inc., an Internet service provider (ISP) based in Chatham, Ont., says a new plan from Bell to "manage" the Internet traffic on his network is compromising the service he offers his customers.

For more than a year, Bell and other Canadian ISPs have utilized "shaping" techniques, essentially slowing down certain kinds of Internet activity on their networks while giving priority to other data. Most of the traffic being shaped is peer-to-peer traffic, which is used to transmit large files, such as movie files.

Until recently, Bell did not shape or restrict the Internet traffic of third-party ISPs, which rent network access on the company's cables and infrastructure.

But last week, some of Mr. Gaudrault's 21,000 high-speed Internet clients began to report their connections were slowing down, and they wanted to know why. That's when he discovered Bell was restricting the torrent and peer-to-peer traffic of Teksavvy customers.

"They [Bell] are screwing with our data, which is not their property," he said. "Every single third-party ISP in Canada is going to be affected by this."

Network carriers such as Bell argue that bandwidth-intensive applications, such as peer-to-peer file transfer programs clog their networks, which results in slow connections for the rest of their customers, similar to how a slow-moving tractor trailer can impede the flow of traffic on a highway.

Bell Canada spokesman Jason Laszlo said the company has every right to limit the amount of bandwidth certain applications can consume on its networks and those it rents to third-party ISPs.

"This isn't a new policy," he said. "Our agreements with wholesale ISP customers clearly include provisions regarding our rights to manage our networks appropriately to the benefit of all customers."

Bell began implementing its third-party ISP traffic shaping policy on March 14 and plans to have the program implemented across its entire network by April 7.

Teksavvy touts unlimited bandwidth use as a selling point to its customers, and has become a favourite ISP for peer-to-peer and torrent users in Ontario.

According to the company's website, its high-end residential DSL package offers download speeds of up to 5 megabytes a second.

However customers are reporting that during peak hours — between 4 p.m. and 2 a.m. — peer-to-peer download speeds have fallen to between 30 and 60 kilobytes a second, Mr. Gaudrault said.

Teksavvy has purchased its network access from Bell since it was founded 10 years ago, and the move comes as a "slap in the face," he said.

"They've given themselves the right to data which isn't theirs and obviously in my mind that is an issue and they seem to not think so," he said. ?

Mr. Gaudrault has already contacted other third-party ISPs that deal with Bell about their next move, which could involve setting up their own infrastructure, but they have yet to make any plans.??

Proponents of the unwritten code of Net Neutrality contend that all Internet traffic must be treated equally and that ISPs shouldn't be allowed to restrict the flow of any online data.

Estimates vary, but analysts believe peer-to-peer and torrent traffic accounts for anywhere from 70 to 90 per cent of online bandwidth use, but emanates from as few as 5 to 10 per cent of all users.

In addition to peer-to-peer and torrent traffic, ISPs are experiencing bandwidth shortages due to the increased use of video sites such as YouTube and the growing popularity of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephony.

Rogers Communications Inc. has shaped traffic on its own networks since 2005, but a spokeswoman for the company could not say whether it also shapes third-party ISP traffic.

Telus Corp. has stated it does not manage or shape any of the traffic on its networks.

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Bell irks ISPs with new throttling policy