CRTC versus Canadian ISPs
How is it possible to say that restricting access to the product you have paid for actually makes the product better? This week has seen some interesting talks between the CRTC and a few main Canadian ISPs. The CRTC was curious about how the ISPs practiced traffic shaping. The CBC has been following the story.
Internet throttling benefits customers: Rogers, Shaw - [Delicious]
Bell reveals internet throttling details to CRTC - [Delicious]
Monday saw the CRTC speaking with Rogers and Shaw. Bell was scheduled to be there as well but their appearance was postponed to the following day. Much to my surprise Rogers came about with some odd comments will Bell sounded more reasonable about the situation. Rogers delievered a statement that the consumer grade internet service is not intended for such high demands.
Generally the ISPs stated that any sort of traffic shaping policy regulated by the CRTC would stiffle innovation. This is perhaps the best self serving statement to be taken from the whole proceedings. 'We don't want a policy regulated by the Government on the books because it might be developed in a way that seeks fairness of distribution over some arbitrary criteria decided by the ISP' Not all P2P traffic is copyright infringement. Last time I needed a Linux distribution I downloaded it via torrent much faster then ever would of happened via http or even FTP. Even the BBC has taken a progressive approach and has provided a lot of its content through torrents.
The most interesting part of the proceedings was Bell's statements of its own traffic shaping practices. Apparently for about 10 hours a day P2P is throttled. The numbers can be found in the article but it is a bit startling. Thinking of buying a car and only being aloud to drive it 100km per hour outside of the hours of 6pm to 1am. Knowing the details of the shaping practice is great because it allows consumers to make an enformed choice but doesn't address the real root of the problem.
The reliance on internet technologies will continue to grow over time. (Facebook just recently hit 250 Million users, you have to know that does a great job clogging the tubes) and increasing infrastructure to support that traffic is needed, not favoring some packets over others. Perhaps making internet access a public utlity like water or electricity would be the answer.
Info about Torrents (not as a evil as some my say)
