Slashdot Mirror
Canadian Regulator CRTC Saves Independent ISPs
fmenard123 writes "The Canadian telecommunications regulator, the CRTC, has affirmed in a decision released on March 3rd 2008 that DSL wholesale and Cable Modem wholesale will continue (PDF) until such time as a meaningful competitive source of supply of wholesale facilities develops. Aside from preserving the status-quo, the CRTC has also determined that unaggregated ADSL access (DSL wholesale for competitors who self-supply their facilities into telephone company central offices) is an essential service given the lack of unbundling for sub-loops. The CRTC ordered phone companies to re-price unaggregated DSL wholesale at forward-looking costs plus a mark-up of no more than 15%, opening the door for a significant reduction in the rates ISPs pay to the telephone companies for access to DSL wholesale. This decision has interesting implications for the US, in which the FCC was not able to overcome the legal attacks against its Computer II regulatory framework. Perhaps ISPs in the US need to look north to try to make their case again."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080304.RCRTC04/TPStory/Business
Government-sponsored monopoly telcos are forced to supply infrastructure access to other companies. They're allowed to make a 15% profit on the line.
This has resulted in cheaper long distance rates, cheaper (and better) Internet access, better hardware, etc.
In the old days, Bell told you to like your Bakelite rotary phone, and that nothing else was economically or technically feasible... and keep paying your monthly rental, since you can't purchase a phone.
Because the telcos were forced to give access to the lines, we now own the phone lines inside our homes, and have fully electronic phones we OWN. We can have Internet access that isn't filtered by Bell, or passed through their misconfigured HTTP proxies. Oh, and the rates for everything are lower after adjustments for inflation.
I'm currently in the position of having to switch from DSL to cable because of the shitty quality of the lines in this building (and since I'm in an apartment, I really can't do much about that) and the distance to the CO. Now, from my research, here in London, Ontario, we have two choices for cable internet: Rogers, and 3web. 3web has gotten some really bad reviews, and my research shows they're simply reselling Rogers service through a deal they have with them.
Now, if the CRTC really wanted to impress me, they would force Rogers to open their lines for cable internet. As it stands right now, AFAIK, we only have truly open wholesale for DSL access, and for those of us that can't get it at a reliable quality, it kinda sucks because our only real choice is the cable monopoly in the area, in this case Rogers.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Have you taken a look at TekSavvy? They're really cheap, good quality, high speed 5M DSL, with excellent customer service (almost every time I've called in, I've gotten an agent right away without any hold time). As I've mentioned below, I'm in the position of having to switch away from them for reasons beyond their or my control, but if you can get Bell at good quality where you are, I'd suggest taking a look.
No, I don't work for them or receive anything for this.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
But the prices aren't any cheaper. I just checked Primus, and for their 3 MB/s connection, it costs $42.95 a month, if you sign up for their long distance also. Bell on the other hand costs $42.95 for their 7 MB/s service, as long as you sign up for at least a basic phone line. Oh, look, they're exactly the same price, and Bell is faster, and doesn't make you sign up for a long distance plan.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Mostly during the Superbowl, where we get [Global / CTV / whoever's] normal commercials instead of the ones that are actually, y'know, interesting.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
See http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sympat and search for throttling
It began in the last couple of months, so ignore threads older than say November 2007 or so.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19634497-Non-P2P-SSL-Protocols-now-being-throttled
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19856107-ThrottlingShaping-Supposedly-Non-Existant-On-Bells-Network
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19691840-Traffic-shaping-timeline-graph
I will second TekSavvy. I switched from Rogers to TekSavvy on 5 M DSL. Great service and great rates. The support and sales are friendly and knowledgeable and no hold time either. I've recommended them to many others.
Links:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpposted/archive/2007/11/05/bell-sympatico-admits-to-blocking-bandwidth-traffic.aspx
I know I'm being throttled because at one time, I would routinely get 200KB/s on torrents (I have a 5MB DSL line). Then suddenly, in the November 2007 timeframe, I was at 30KB/s during the daytime. I have experimented and found that right after midnight, it will increase to about 50KB/s, then to a higher speed at the top of the next hour (200 KB/s). But clearly, many customers are clueless about this and therefore not aware that they are not getting what they pay for. I encountered this pattern of decrepit service with non P2P traffic each time I moved. I was consistently getting 2M service when I was paying for 5MB. It took a lot of patience, blood, and hair-pulling before I got to a senior technician who corrected the situation. My three experiences convinced me that particular problem probably affected thousands of unsuspecting customers and was grounds for a class-action lawsuit.
I switched to them when Rogers started throttling all encrypted traffic (to throttle bittorrent believe it or not) and I've never looked back. They have great customer service and you aren't going to get better upload speeds (despite what Bell/Rogers advertise). If you go for their premium service rather than the unlimited you also get much lower latency. They take Bell to task whenever something needs to happen, e.g. something is wrong with your line, and are cheaper than the major ISPs to boot.
I personally know at least 6 people who have switched to TekSavvy from either Bell/Rogers in the last year, and haven't heard a bad thing from any of them.
Thanks for the link. And there's a whole crapload of stuff being deregulated by this decision, to see what will be phased out read the end of the decision.
There's a lot of technical stuff in there I don't understand, but I can't see how letting the market forces reign in Canada will result in anything other than the big players swallowing up the small ones. It's been happening with the cable industry here for years, and with the DSL market, too. That's what happens when the fibre-optic backbone is owned by one or two companies.
I recently switched to TekSavvy from Bell Symaptico, and I've been very happy with the change. My reason for switching? Bell stealthily introduced bandwidth caps (30GB combined up/down per month in my case), and starting charging a hefty $1.50 per GB over the cap. They wouldn't charge more than $30 in overage fees in a month, but still... When I compared their service to what TekSavvy was offering, making the switch was a complete no-brainer. TekSavvy's non-unlimited service does have a transfer cap, but it's a generous 200GB per month combined up/down, and the fee per GB over cap is an entirely reasonable $0.25. Plus the basic 5M service is $15-20 cheaper per month than Bell! The difference in price, for what amounts to the same speed, is shocking to say the least.
I'd strongly recommend that you take some time and read the Broadband Reports forums on the various Canadian ISP's if you plan to make any ISP choices, rather than trust the sales pitches. It will take a little time, but you will very, very glad that you did. Pay special attention terms like throttling, hard caps, soft caps, bandwidth limits and penalties, the use of the phrase "up to" when quoting speeds, quality and location of technical support, cancellation fees, and customer satisfaction ranking. And make sure you look at ISP's like Teksavvy, the highest rated Canadian ISP, who charges about 55% what you quoted for the same real (as opposed to theoretical) speed.
I'll also recommend TekSavvy. Their service is cheap, fast, and good. You can also get a static IP for a couple of dollars per month, and they don't block or filter anything, to my knowledge. I've just moved into a new subdivision that doesn't have DSL support yet, so I'm stuck with Rogers (*spit*), but I'll be switching back to TekSavvy ASAP. Speaking of which, I called in early January to see if my area was supported. The woman said "Not according to our records, but I'll talk to my Bell rep to see if we can get an ETA and I'll call you back." She actually called me back about a week or two later. When she called me back, I was told that DSL would be available to me sometime in March and she would call me then to open an account for me. I haven't heard from her yet but I expect to, based on past experiences.
Ian
Basically, since Bell owns all the phone lines in Canada,
Maybe in your part of Canada, but not west of Ontario.
MTS/Allstream owns the last mile copper in Manitoba
Sasktel owns the last mile copper in Saskatchewan
Telus owns the last mile copper in Alberta and BC
---
"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs