Traffic throttling by Canadian ISPs not required, experts tell CRTC

Leading experts, including one of the main developers of the Internet, demostrate that Canadian ISPs have no reason to throttle p2p traffic.
2/27/2009 6:00:00 AM By: Brian Jackson

Canada's Internet service providers (ISPs) have no reason to throttle peer-to-peer (p2p) traffic and can use other network management techniques that have minimal end-user repercussions instead, according to top Internet experts.

Net neutrality advocates in Canada have sought out the testimony of experts involved in inventing the Internet and managing Canada's major backbone connection.

The Campaign for Democratic Media and the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) submitted a 70-page argument to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Feb. 24, emphasizing the importance of telecommunications' carriers treating all types of Internet traffic equally.

Backers of the submission argue the very nature of the Internet as an open platform for innovation is at risk because of the traffic- management practices of large asset-based ISPs, such as Bell Canada and Rogers Communications.

“We're not disputing that they're experiencing some congestion at certain points in their network,” says Philippa Lawson, a CIPPIC associate and co-counsel for CDM. "But they've chosen to use the most intrusive, most privacy invasive, and most damaging methods [to deal with this].”

This isn't the first time the CRTC has examined the traffic-shaping issue.

The so called "net neutrality" controversy came to the fore when wholesale customers of Bell's network complained about p2p traffic being throttled. The Canadian Association of Internet Providers asked the CRTC to demand that Bell cease the practice last year, but the CRTC denied that request on Nov. 20.

However, the Commission did promise to more closely examine the issue of traffic shaping.

At the time, the CRTC said they didn't have enough evidence to decide if throttling was warranted or not. Bell had not released its traffic management data, citing competitive reasons.

"We're disappointed at the amount of information about their network traffic they've put on the public record," Lawson says.

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