Update: This interview has been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 15, 2008.
Update 2: The interview has been recorded. You can listen here.
Play audio:
This week’s episode of Spark is all about “Access.”
On Monday, April 14 Tuesday, April 15, 2008, Nora will interview Mirko Bibic, Bell Canada’s chief of regulatory affairs. Their topics will include:
- Net neutrality
- Unlimited internet plans
- The last mile in Canada
Do you have questions about these for Mr. Bibic? Leave your (on-topic) questions in the comments below or email them to spark@cbc.ca. We’ll do our best to include as many as possible in the interview.
We’ll post the full unedited interview here on Monday Tuesday afternoon, so check back then to hear it. A shorter, edited version will then air on Spark on April 16 and 19.
I think the biggest misdirection here is that Bell may be traffic shaping on connections that are not “to the Internet”.
If a third-party ISP has a large Usenet server, it may use more bandwidth between itself and its subscribers than between the customers and the Internet. It could even use peer-to-peer protocols between the subscribers – and in both cases, NONE of that traffic goes ‘to the internet’. It’s all private between the ISPs and the customers, using only the DSL lines, and bandwidth the ISP bought from Bell to reach those DSL connections. But Bell would still throttle P2P connections used in this way.
How does Bell *know* that the P2P connections it throttles are actually Internet connections, and not private P2P connections among the ISP and its customers? And – if all this traffic is on bandwidth that is paid for by ISPs, then why is there any need for throttling at all?
NebuAd is shockingly similar to Phorm – the advertising outfit in the UK (incidentally one of NebuAd’s competitors)…
Phorm raised the ire of users across the United Kingdom when their invasion of people’s privacy became public knowledge.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/14/bt_phorm_2007/
I sincerely hope that Bell will learn from BT’s and Phorm’s example.
You could ask them why they continue to lie about web traffic stats.
http://www.ellacoya.com/news/pdf/2007/NXTcommEllacoyaMediaAlert.pdf
Warner Brothers plans to make hundreds of movies and television shows available for purchase over the Internet using BitTorrent software. Isn’t Bell’s throttling practice going to interfere with such legit growing business model?
that website should be up if your ilnes are letting people in to it … it’s on a server in my apartment, as allowed by my TOS with TFNet.ca .
Anyway: Your policies are interfering with my access to nntp text-only newsgroups on the news.sff.net server. There is no binary traffic on those newsgroups, which are discussions of science fiction and fantasy with some of the authors in the genre.
Do you suppose you can refine your DPI enough to only block binaries until the whole issue is resolved?
I would very much like to hear the response to questions posed/posted by Kevin McArthur in these comments. Excellent questions, Kevin!
Bell needs to realize that the internet evolves. It’s not just used for sending your emails and browsing text-based websites anymore. Nowadays it’s about downloading and streaming high definition video, playing online games, and other bandwidth-intensive applications…and it’s only going to get more demanding. They need to invest in better infrastructure to handle the upcoming demands as the internet grows at an exponential rate. We could learn a lot from other countries, like in Asia, where people can purchase 100Mbps connections for the same price as Bell’s 5Mbps connections and not be throttled with certain applications like bit torrent.
In the next 5-10 years, I believe one of the biggest issues that we will face as a modern society is net neutrality and the corporations fighting against it. It’s going to get a lot worse than simply throttling bit torrents. Internet traffic is going to become one of the most important commodities in the world in the decades ahead, and Bell’s current business practices are taking it all in the wrong direction. I’ve had a high speed connection for 10 years now, and the simple fact is while on Bell’s service some of my things are slower than they were 10 years ago due to traffic shaping and throttling – this is not progress. This is greed.
This past winter, a Media Studies class at the University of Guelph actively discussed the rights and freedoms of Canadian citizens living and participating in our ever-accelerating media and informational landscape. One collaborative project that emerged, without mandate from the course syllabus or credit, was our creation and continued compilation of a Media Charter of Rights & Freedoms, which we hope will come to represent the civil, political, legal, and personal interests of Canadians who interact with information media, most notably the Internet. A link to this document can be found at the end of the comment/question.
Many of these rights and freedoms were written (and continue to be written) with the intent to prevent the abuse or disruption of information channels in the name of economic gain.
I am interested in:
A) learning how Mr Bibic and Bell Canada manage to see the practices of throttling and traffic-shaping as non-violations of the IFLA Internet Manifesto of 2002, or section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
B) understanding how traffic and information monitoring, and the subsequent alteration and/or intentional limiting of access to that information, does not constitute a violation of customer agreements with Bell Canada’s own Terms of Service for its Sympatico Internet service, which state:
“Your Service Provider may, in its sole discretion and without your consent, migrate you to other networks and platforms or change its suppliers, as and when it becomes necessary. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Your Service Provider may effect such a migration or change in suppliers in order to maintain, upgrade or enhance the performance of the Service and other deliverables provided to you hereunder, to ensure continuity of the Service and the integrity of Your Service Provider’s network, and/or to comply, as necessary, with manufacturers’ requirements. You expressly agree that any such migration or change does not constitute amendment or material change to this Service Agreement or to the Service.”
“Your messages may be the subject of unauthorized third party interception and review. An individual with Internet access can cause, among other things, damage, incur expenses and enter into contractual obligations while on the Internet. All such matters are your sole responsibility. Your Service Provider has no obligation to monitor the Service, any content or your use of Your Service Provider’s networks. However, you agree that Your Service Provider reserves the right from time to time to monitor the Service electronically, monitor or investigate content or your use of Your Service Provider’s networks, including without limitation bandwidth consumption, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy any laws, regulations or other governmental request from any applicable jurisdiction, or as necessary to operate the Service or to protect itself or others.
You hereby acknowledge that Your Service Provider, its affiliates, agents and suppliers may retain and use any information, comments or ideas conveyed by you relating to the Service (including any products and services made available on the Service). This information may be used to provide you with better service.”
How does throttling/manipulating/preventing certain kinds of internet traffic, but not others, constitute mere “monitoring” of information, for the purposes of “service enhancement”?
For more information, and to access or contribute to the Media Charter of Rights & Freedoms, please visit http://culturshock.wordpress.com/
My question based on this link.
What makes Bell Canada believe they own the “last mile” infrastructure/wires? Seems to me this “last mile” infrastructure was paid for by tax dollars.
http://blogs.itworldcanada.com/insights/2008/04/14/more-bell-canada-misinformation-and-misdirection-in-attempt-to-justify-questionably-lawful-throttling/
I would like to ask Bell “Why does ExpressVu offer Much Vibe and not Much Loud?”
This ommission leaves Bell customers/old school rockers (like myself) at a loss for a music video channel on a 3-digit dial.
MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic, and PunchMuch don’t really play videos any more. I like MuchVibe because they actually play music videos, but it isn’t really my type of music.
If an ISP opens up and examines the packets being sent over their network, do they not become partly responisble for the contents of that transmission if it contains illegal or illicit material?
This packet sniffing technology is certainly interesting and I would think it would make it much more difficult for an ISP to claim nuetrality when they admit to examining the contents of their customers communications.
If an ISP opens up and examines the packets being sent over their network, do they not become partly responisble for the contents of that transmission if it contains illegal or illicit material?
This packet sniffing technology is certainly interesting and I would think it would make it much more difficult for an ISP to claim nuetrality when they admit to examining the contents of their customers communications.
Bell can go to hell. There a bunch of greedy fascists.
What gives bell the right to view what we’re doing on line with their packet sniffing technology? Is this not a form of invasion of our privacy? We’re talking about public internet here not a high school server or a business server. What gives bell the right in the first place to limit the bandwidth we’re paying for? Bell can at least lower their prices to make up for what there doing. Thanks!
I am a TekSavvy customer. By necessity, my Internet traffic must travel though some Bell infrastructure which is leased by my ISP, but ultimately my bits comes from Peer1. I have never entered into any agreement with Bell.
How does Mr. Bibic justify his company dictating what I can and cannot do with my connection?
When Hi-speed is low-speed.
We were bell phone subscribers for years. When it came out, we had the top end internet package, which turned out to be a bit of a scam.
After about a year of wondering why Bell high-speed was so low-speed, hours on hold with their custmer service (I use that term loosely), and numerous visits from technicians, one of the techies finally let it slip.
IF you are more than five kilometres from a phone centre, Bell can't actually ever deliver the 5 mbps… in fact, they would be lucky to consistently it at 1 Mbps. (Which is their "lite" service)
Keep in mind, I lived in the West end Ottawa – not in the middle of nowhere.
So Bell Sympatico, knowingly sold me high-speed internet at a level that they could not deliver.
When I complained, I was told to read the fine print…. the service was 'up to' 5 Mbps.
Frankly, a company like Bell should be ashamed of this type of practice.
Needless to say, I no longer do business with Bell Sympatico, and took every opportunity to inform neighbours and friends.
I found the discussion interesting. Everyone’s talking about the high end. I’m moving to my cottage for retirement in Eastern Ontario, its a family place that we’ve owned for sixty years. We’ve had telephone service there for most of those years. We moved from party connection to private line about thirty years ago. Now we pay the standard telephone rates for the past sixty years and to tell the truth the telphone system probably has never beenm upgraded since the fifties and now we can use sympatico and get speeds of up to 24, awesome! What year is it? Its not like we had some special extra low phone rate because of our poor lines, we have been paying the same as everyone else but we still have a 1950′s telephone system. There are two booster stations between my place and the local town six miles away. What has Bell been doing with all of the telephone money our family has been paying for the last sixtyu years? Wasn’t some of that supposed to go to upgrading the telephone lines? Obviously they never did and took the cheap route to maintain services. All telecommunications services should be meeting target performance levels of service. Because of topography wireless not available here but even if it was I should have competition between telephone line access and wireless. People can’t be part of the twentieth, no matter the twenty first century if our telecommunications systems remain as primitive as they are. Its not like I’m paying 2.00$ a month for a telephone system and .0010 cents a month for internet (that’s about what its worth if price was based on speed. No wonder rural areas are suffering! I want high speed and competition. All ISP’s should be coopted to expand and improve the service,.. or else it should move to a public utility like hydro.
All I can say that is Bell’s practices and corporate accountability are a joke.
This interview did not shed any new light on the problem and if Bell can provide a solution, just the standard corporate line and always pushing Bell as a ‘feature rich’ service. The throttling is happening for all services that are non Bell approved. This is very much a conflict of interest.
Like others who have suffered by their practices, I have officially canceled my phone and internet services with Bell. Never again…
I saw what I believe was a rebroadcast of the Bell program (Sat., June 21st). That show highlighted all the problems I’ve been having with Bell. Low speeds (we finally found out from a tech it’s because we live on the edge of their service area); being sold a high speed package when our phone line can’t handle the high speed (which resulted in a LOWER speed). Promises of returning us to our original package have failed spectacularly. We were repeatedly promised that we wouldn’t be charged for bandwidth usage, and yet, continue to see the charges show up. The kicker? After a lengthy talk with a Bell rep, promising a return to our $29.95/month, no bandwith charges plan, we were charged $190 the very next month! I spoke to two supervisors, who couldn’t even agree on what they could promise me! Bell now has a new department devoted entirely to dealing with customers with bandwidth issues – I’m not surprised. I’ve now cancelled my service with them, and say “good riddance”!
1) How can a company expect to advertise a product, then deliver on a product not as advertised?
More succinctly: Does this not equate with false advertising and fraud?
2) The telecom industry is not just a private enterprise, but also an important national infrastructure. If the current private companies licensed to run that infrastructure cannot be trusted, what is to stop the government from either awarding that contract to another company, or to nationalize the infrastructure?
i have had many years of ongoing problems with bell on my business line as well a residential. i have had no or very little help but more than1000 promises that my line will be repaired but it never happens or it seems only for a day or so. now along with noise on the both lines im getting charged for and internet service i have never singed up for. lately every time i have call to get repair or to find out about additional charges to my account i get the reply they are unable to access my account. this is an ongoing issue for more than 12 years. i receive calls from customer satisfaction asking how or if i am satisfied with the service. i explain that the problem is ongoing but nothing ever gets done.
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My question is simply this, isn't Bell removing competitive products off of its networks so that its IPTV service can be highlighted? Torrent traffic like CBC's released program are being interrupted so that Bell can offer a solution directly to homes over IP.