CRTC Approves BCE Traffic Shaping

• By David Hamilton, November 21, 2008

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(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Canada's communication regulation body has denied complaints about Bell Canada Enterprises' (www.bce.ca) "managing" or "shaping" of Internet traffic on the network space it leases to third-party providers, letting it essentially "throttle" bandwidth, according to opponents.

The Canadian Association of Independent Providers (www.cata.ca/Communities/caip/), a consortium of Internet service companies, had asked the the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (www.crtc.gc.ca) to order the country's largest phone and Internet provider to cease its network management practices. The CRTC's Thursday decision allows Bell to continue to managing Internet bandwidth on its network, which the company insists is necessary to avoid network roadblocks that slow down the network.

"We are pleased that the commission has agreed there is no need to intervene in the management of broadband networks," BCE regulatory and government affairs senior vice president Mirko Bibic said in a statement. "This is good news for Internet users across Canada who benefit from better managed networks."

Internet traffic management measures, which the company describes as "objective," are present in BCE's wholesale and retail consumer and business customers, however, Thursday's CRTC decision relates only to wholesale Internet.

"With this decision, the Commission has rightly confirmed that network operators are in the best position to determine how to operate their networks effectively and efficiently, to allow fair and proportionate use of the Internet by all users," Bibic said in a statement.

Nevertheless, the CRTC has announced it will undertake a broader examination of the issues related to Internet network management.

CAIP, a division of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, has been long critical of Bell, having issued many challenges to its management policies.

In a mid-July letter addressed to the CRTC and BCE, CATAAlliance president John Reid wrote, "CATA's members are at the forefront of developing innovative technology products and services that will elevate Canada's position in the global marketplace. Fast and reliable access to the Internet is essential for these Canadian businesses to be competitive and indeed survive. Equally important is the unimpeded, free flow of data of all types across the Internet. Many of CATA's members are developing products and applications which rely upon higher speeds and unfettered access to content on the Internet.

"However, the measures that Bell Canada is applying to manage the traffic of its Sympatico customers as well as its wholesale ISP customers is interfering with the ability of end-users to telecommute and/or work from their home offices and hindering our members from running their business and providing quick customer services."

Thursday's decision, which ruled in favor of Bell, follows an interim decision by the CRTC last May denying a CAIP request for a cease and desist injunction, ordering Bell to immediately halt managing wholesale traffic on its network pending a full investigation into the issue.

The issue, however, is not over, with the CRTC planning public hearings beginning in July, 2009, inviting anyone interested to submitting comments to the proceedings before a February 16, 2009 deadline.

"Based on the evidence before us, we found that the measures employed by Bell Canada to manage its network were not discriminatory," said CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein in a statement. "Bell Canada applied the same traffic-shaping practices to wholesale customers as it did to its own retail customers."

A major competitor to BCE in Canada's telecom market, Rogers Communications (www.rogers.ca), has faced similar criticism for traffic shaping, according to a report from Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail.

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