Attention Canadian DSL Customers - Bell Is Shaping 3rd Party ISP Traffic
In a further act of unbridled arrogance on behalf of Canada's largest (and by far worst) phone company, Bell Canada has announced that not only are they implementing packet shaping technology on their own network, they are enforcing the rules on leased lines. What does this mean? If you use any 3rd party DSL service that runs on Bell phone lines (which is basically all DSL services in eastern Canada), you will be subject to packet shaping of your traffic, even if you aren't a Bell customer. Many users are already reporting having torrents reduced to as little as 30K/sec on connections that are supposed to be 5Mbit. We have zero Bell services in our house. Our phone service is through a 3rd party and I use TekSavvy Solutions for my Internet service. I use these companies specifically to get away from Bell because their customer service is the worst I've ever experienced and I refuse to be told what I can and cannot do with the Internet connection I pay for. When I signed up for TekSavvy, they specifically said "It's your service, you can do what you want with it." Now Bell Canada is going to be enforcing their own rules on everyone, no matter who you use. This is outrageous.
This is a very new development but most Canadian ISPs are up in arms about it and I've no doubt that there will be court action over this. The technology is already active in many areas (Bell claims is will be in all areas by mid-April) and TekSavvy customers are tracking affected areas on this map. I do not appear to be affected yet but I live only a few minutes from Vanier which apparently is getting throttled back to 50K/sec on torrents. I'm following the issue closely and I'm putting together a list of ways for people who are concerned about this to do something about it. Here's what I have so far:
1. If you use Azureus for torrents, they've developed a plug-in which will monitor your connection for packet shaping measures, display the results and allow you to send them to Azureus who are compiling a list of who is shaping and how badly. This can be used to confirm if you are affected.
2. Contact your ISP, confirm their awareness of the issue and ask for their action plan.
3. Contact Bell Canada by phone (1-800-668-6878) or e-mail and tell them this isn't acceptable.
4. If you are on Facebook, join this group which has been created to collaborate on ways to fight this.
5. Complain to the Competition Bureau. This is a federal government body charged with ensuring fair competition practices in Canada. Someone has created a generic letter to send to them which can be found here. This is the quickest thing you can do and one of the more effective ones.
6. Sign the petition at neutrality.ca.
7. Complain to the CCTS. This is by far the most important thing you can do. This organization is the one that handles complaints regarding Internet service in Canada. Unfortunately, it is an industry-run organization and the true independent governing body (the CRTC) says the Internet is not their problem. However, if this organization gets flooded with enough complaints, they will have no choice but to take this issue seriously.
Net Neutrality has been conveniently ignored in Canada for far too long and that Bell can be so arrogant as to impose their own draconian rule set onto 3rd party paying customers is unconscionable. This cannot be allowed to happen. If you are a Canadian DSL customer (or indeed a broadband customer in general as all major DSL and cable providers in Canada now use packet shaping), steps have to be taken to ensure that we are not left paying for only the Internet that a corporate conglomerate agree to let us have. I'll be keeping this thread updated with new news and ways to act on this issue.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
Well, way to ruin my night.
Honestly - just got this beautiful 24 inch widescreen monitor - and now I find this out?
I'm a teksavvy customer too (used to work for bell as tech support, hated them ever since) and just did some tests - torrents are pretty much capped at 30K/s for me. Regular downloading is fine, ugh.
So now what? I mean, I'll follow your steps, but is there another ISP I can use out there that doesn't have packet shaping? I hate to abandon such a great company, but 30K/s is rough, rough stuff. I know rogers uses packet sharing but are smaller independent cable providers also affected? How about Cogeco?
I'm pretty bummed out. Sigh.
Morrolan wrote:
XBLA / Steam: Dysplastic
You have no other option. Every major ISP in Canada is now packet shaping. Your only options in Ottawa are Rogers (who've been shaping for well over a year) and DSL (all of which are controlled by Bell.) I'm happy to report that I contacted TekSavvy and they've referred me to their official forum on Broadband Reports where the owners are directly communicating with the users. TekSavvy was the first to respond to this and they have been very aggressive. They are planning legal action and are currently waiting on Bell's official written response to decide whether to pursue it themselves or as a class action. These guys are on our side and this is one of the main reasons I chose to switch to them. I've updated the main post with some new information. It turns out you can e-mail the Competition Bureau (they just don't advertise it) and someone has created a generic e-mail to send to them. I implore everyone here who is on DSL in Canada to please do that. We can make a big enough noise that the government notices and steps in.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
I've dropped an email to the CBC Search Engine podcast, this seems to be something they may want to pursue.
Certis beat me to it. - Elysium
I'm going to take a wild guess and say that this will effect National Capital Freenet (NCF). Sh*te!
Thanks for posting.
Your friendly neighbourhood hair splitting singularity. Full disclaimer:This post may have been edited by someone other than myself.
Yes it will. NCF like everyone else, has to lease their line from Bell. Trust me, if you haven't complained to the CCTS and Competition Bureau, please, please do so. It will help. I've been watching TekSavvy's forum on Broadband Reports and they are gearing up for a fight but they need users to speak up if they want to have a chance at this.
That's a good idea. I don't listen to CBC podcasts but if this is one you think might cover this, I'll contact them as well. Funny enough, the CBC is complaining about this measure because they plan to distribute Canada's Next Great Prime Minister via BitTorrent and this severely impacts those plans.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
It looks like this is getting some mainstream media attention. I'm really impressed that TekSavvy came out swinging on this, especially since Bell has a reputation for retaliatory tactics against "partners" who speak out against them.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
I heard a bit about this on the 5PM news on CBC Radio 1 today as well. They also mentioned TekSavvy. Huzzah.
Certis beat me to it. - Elysium
Very good to hear. If enough mainstream users get an understanding of what they're doing and the reasons behind it, hopefully enough will complain. I'm still waiting for responses on my CCTS and Competition Bureau complaints but both have been acknowledged at least.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
Boy, I wish I could help you guys. That would make me furious.
Packet shaping, when used this way, is very simply a way of cheating you out of the bandwidth you paid for. Instead of increasing their capacity to match true demand, they're throttling it instead.
The local guys that are being shafted by this are probably playing fair, provisioning their systems according to the REAL demand... they're not, in other words, selling you more than they're actually providing. But now Bell is screwing them over, in essence cheating them out of the bandwidth they've paid for... and, thus, screwing you guys.
Packet shaping is really a misnomer. It's a synonym for "dropping packets". It's just dropping them in a way that's unfair to certain protocols. There's no need for traffic shaping in the core of the network if adequate bandwidth is being provided. Any provider that turns on shaping isn't buying enough bandwidth, full stop.
A properly provisioned network should be dropping very, very few packets.
Shaping is useful when it's under user control, at the edge of the network. That's where your packets should be getting dropped, and having it prioritized the way you want is very sensible and very consumer-friendly. You probably want your VOIP packets forwarded before your bittorrent packets. But if your neighbor is running VOIP, that shouldn't slow down your bittorrent.
Once packets are past the limits of your particular line, almost none of them should be dropped. If they are, it's a bad network.
News Site On This Issue
The site is fairly ugly because it was put together very fast but it's a great source for news on this issue. It's getting a lot of press all over the world. And it turns out that yesterday, Comcast in the US who was one of the biggest users of packet shaping agreed to abandon it after huge customer backlash got the FTC involved. We can do this up here too!
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
We can do this up here IF the issue stays prominent in consumer's minds. Given that Sympatico and Rogers (Comcast equivalents, no?) have already been doing this for a while, I don't think it will.
I tried to go the extra mile here and brought the issue up to my brother who is a business reporter with *undisclosed major canadian national media outlet here*. Their tech reporter is on vacation but he brought it up to the editorial staff and try to get them to dig deeper into the legalities and long-term ramifications of the issue than the generally superficial g&m article.
Morrolan wrote:
XBLA / Steam: Dysplastic
Judging from some posts I've read on their forums today, TekSavvy does not believe in Bell's statement that they are legally allowed to do what they're doing and it looks like they will be going after them in court, along with some of the more prominent independent ISPs. Apparently one of the telecom workers unions has also stood up and said this has no basis other than quashing competition. Notice that of all the major Canadian telcos, the only one not utilizing packet shaping is Telus who coincidentally is the only one that doesn't offer television service. As you said though, this is all about mindshare but with the mainstream coverage this is getting combined with Michael Geist who has a lot of pull in the Canadian press, I'm hoping this will make a difference.
I've found out that my area (Gloucester near Ogilvie and Blair) is now being shaped. I started a torrent from an emulation site I use and after 4pm, it dropped to 30K/sec. I normally get 550K/sec from this site. It appears these restrictions for now are only between 4pm and 2am which I guess is something. As a thanks for the inconvenience we're all dealing with, TekSavvy is putting up a TF2 server for their DSL customers next week and the top player at the end of the week wins $1,000. I haven't played TF2 in months but that money would help me a lot right now.
Stuff like this is why I use this company. I also found out today that they've started offering landline home phone service with pretty good flat rate long distance. I'll be switching to that on Monday too.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
Attica! Attica!
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The TekSavvy community has come up with some very good people to contact to raise some noise about this. Keep in mind that all of this contact information is readily available on Bell's web site or was provided by the people in question in media interviews so it was obtained through purely ethical means:
John Sweeney
Senior Vice President
Carrier Services
Telephone: 416-353-7225
Fax: 416-977-3557
Mobile: 416-420-5819
john.sweeney@bell.ca
Bell Canada
Floor 6N
483 Bay Street
Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C9
Jason Laszlo
(416) 353-4135
1 888 482-0809
jason.laszlo@bell.ca
Kevin Crull
President - Residential Services
kevin.crull@bell.ca
ph: (416) 581-2923
fx: (416) 593-1338
Executive Assistant: Jacqueline Fowler
(416)-581-2953
jacqueline.fowler@bell.ca
483 BAY ST. (BTS)
TORONTO, Ontario, M5G 2C9
If you feel there is more that we can do...
You may speak to the Bell Canada Executive Office of Customer Relations by calling
Québec: 1 866-317-3382
Ontario: 1 866-317-3382
You may write to us at:
Bell Canada Executive Office of Customer Relations
P.O. Box 593, Station A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E4
E-mail us at:
executive.office@bell.ca
To fax us:
1-800-554-5148 (no charge)
I also strongly suggest contacting these people though if you are only going to pick one, make it the CCTS or the Competition Bureau as Bell frankly doesn't care what people have to say. Despite being bombarded with correspondence from TekSavvy users, they are continuing to state in the media that no one is bothered by what they're doing.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
I am with Aliant here in Newfoundland. I checked with the Google maps link you posted, but I do not seem to be affected. However, I am pretty sure Aliant is a subsidiary of Bell and I would not be surprised if they are following suit.
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Jason Laszlo's Facebook Page, something just ain't right with his updates..
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That he disagrees with our side of the issue is one thing but to make patently smug remarks like that in a publicly viewable forum just shows you the kind of people Bell likes to put at the top. There is some question in the TekSavvy forums as to whether or not the profile is legit but it apparently has existed since before this issue became public and it's very detailed so if it's fae, someone went to a lot of effort just to smear a guy.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
Quite compelling.
One of the TekSavvy staffers has posted a rather interesting graphical analysis of the last couple of days showing that not only is Bell's excuse that P2P is overloading the network complete nonsense but their packet shaping methods are affecting numerous other kinds of traffic -- common traffic used by all users.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
I've added another way to protest Bell's action.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
The Canadian Association of Internet Providers has issued a formal complaint to the CRTC about this, stating that Bell's actions are in violation of the tarriff under which they are required to offer services to 3rd party ISPs. The complaint is very long but is a fascinating read and answers every possible question as to why this is anti-competitive and Bell clearly did this with malicious intent. The whole thing is here.
When it comes to the CRTC, Bell is rarely ever ruled against because well...they're Bell. A lot of people have hope in this though because it was the CRTC who required Bell to start licensing their network to resellers in the first place. If this is left to go through, most people believe independent ISPs in Canada are doomed.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
Not only is Bell interfering with third-party traffic, but — according to CBC — they want third-party ISP and phone carriers off their network entirely. Bell is lobbying to have lease-conditions on their networks removed, stating that enough competition exists that they should not longer be required to lease infrastructure to third-parties. Perhaps throttling is just the beginning?
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/04/02/tech-bell.html?ref=rss
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Wow. Every time I think that bell can't piss me off more, they do.
From the article above:
"On the internet side, Bell faces competition from cable companies."
False. Make that Cable COMPANY. Singular. How is TWO companies a competitive market? The major falsehood that bell will propagate is that there are multiple major cable companies in Canada (Videotron, Rogers, Shaw, etc) but the fact is that they are totally and completely regionally divided to effectively make it only one major cable provider per region.
Oh, and lets not forget the fact that all of Bell's infrastructure that it is oh-so-protective of was build while it was a CROWN CORPORATION HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED BY TAXPAYER DOLLARS.
Fine. Let bell monopolize the industry, then issue them a multi-billion dollar bill for all the money they received, plus inflation, plus interest.
God I hate them.
In other news, received a response from the competition bureau.
"At this point, Bell's network management practices appear to be non-discriminatory, in that they are being applied at a network-wide level to both Bell's own retail service and the service of all its wholesale customers, as opposed to the targeting of specific competitors"
but wait, that doesn't have anything to do with their own criteria for anti-competitive behavior:
* one or more persons substantially or completely control, throughout Canada or anywhere thereof, a class or species of business; (Yes- the DSL business and it's infrastructure)
* that person or those persons have engaged in or are engaging in a practice of anti-competitive acts; and (Yes- forcing competitors in the dsl business to adhere to the same network control standards that it does)
* the practice has had, is having or is likely to have the effect of preventing or lessening competition substantially in a market. (yes- the competitive advantage of third party isp's is diminished)
No where in these rules does it say that "It's not anti-competitive if you apply the same rules to yourself too!" or "It's not anti-competitive if you target ALL your competitors and not a specific competitor!"
So they're not making any sense.
I want to reply but I think getting their response back might just send me over the edge. In the meantime, i think I'll bring a graffiti marker around town and deface those god-damn beavers.
We need to start a new petition to Norm Macdonald to please, please, please stop.
Morrolan wrote:
XBLA / Steam: Dysplastic
Shaw Cable doesn't appear to be packet shaping (at least not heavily) torrent streams.
And Parallax - Telus, at least out West, is offering digital TV.
Mystic Violet wrote:
Telus doesn't seem to be packet shaping either. Neither does Videotron.
Which basically just leaves Ontario as screwed. Ah well, suppose we deserve it
Morrolan wrote:
XBLA / Steam: Dysplastic
I didn't know Telus offered TV service and I figured that's why they weren't packet shaping. Guess I was wrong.
I hope that CAIP get somewhere with the CRTC. I am continuing to follow up with the Competition Bureau, explaining from angles like the TV service one, why Bell's actions are anti-competitive. It appears they just don't want to have to take on such a large company and are looking for ways to squirm out of their responsibilities. Most people also believe that Bell will not win their lawsuit to have the tarriff nullified but we'll have to see on that one. I love our Conservative government that can have a large company spitting in the public's face and then claim it isn't their problem to deal with.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
XBox Live|Tshirts|My Music|GameFly|xfire
This is what happens when you can't own guns.
Sadly, I can see more and more of this going forward. In the US, internet is operated on monopoly as well. Most people can only get access from one cable provider or one phone company. There is a choice in some areas. But even in large cities like San Francisco, Comcast is the only provider in many parts of the city.
It also gets to the sorry state of broadband and internet in North America. The idea that free, municipal, internet is not a norm, rather than a crazy experiment, disturbs me. Aren't Americans and Canadians supposed to be living in the land of milk and honey?
Fixed.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
I think things are a little spread out to expect government run internet access anywhere other major cities. Besides, broadband has been common in the U.S for what, less than ten years?
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