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Bell Canada Official Speaks Out On Throttling
westcoaster004 brings to our attention an interview with Mirko Bibic, head of regulatory affairs for Bell Canada, discussing the ISP's traffic-shaping practices. This follows news we discussed recently that a class action lawsuit was filed against Bell for their involvement in traffic shaping. Bibic reiterates that internet congestion is a real problem and claims that the throttling had nothing to do with Bell's new video service. CBC News quotes him saying:
"If no measures were taken, then 700,000 customers would have been affected by congestions during peak periods. We want to obviously take steps to make sure that doesn't happen. So this network management is, as we've stated, one of the ways to address the issue of congestion during peak periods. At the end of the day, the wholesale ISPs are our customers and we generate revenue [from them], so we want to make sure we're serving them to the best of our ability as well."
Look at the Bell provided graphs:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20567537-
Their ATM capacity is around 170 Gbit/s and their backbone traffic is around 125Gbit/s. They have 45Gbit of spare capacity and this is Bell's own numbers so who knows if they're inflated or not. Also, their DSLAM capacity is enormous so where exactly is the congestion? Maybe there are some DSLAMs that are congested but that's why you upgrade, not throttle your entire network and all 3rd party traffic over the ATM network.
"Bell started throttling my connection, so I switched to Teksavvy. Unfortunately Bell controls the wires so my connection is still being throttled."
Looks like win-win for Bell. The get most of the revenues, and don't have to provide internet backbone bandwidth or tech support, they can now mess with your connection and don't even have to listen to you complain.
Bell gets about $20 out of $30 for just providing the throttled last mile. $30 out of $40 if you are on Dry DSL. So Bell gets to keep most of the money and they reduce over-head. I don't think they are going to be defeated by this.
I am with Vianet and being Bell throttled. I am canceling all Bell services (third party DSL, landline and long distance) and moving to Cable + VOIP.
I am actually denying Bell every penny of revenue they get from me. I will also tell them exactly why they are losing a long term customer and all associated revenues.
He's right. 11 billion dollars of grants for setting up the DSL infrastructure (and naturally they don't want third-party ISPs using it, even thought they didn't pay for it themselves).
However, now that it needs to be upgraded, no further grants are forthcoming. Why would they be? People don't want to pay anything... much less more.
...Steve
"But the fact is the world is not responsible enough for the technology."
I can agree with that in regard to flying cars, we have enough problems with ones limited to the ground, and with flight it only added another dimensions, and exponential problems.
But, I dont really see how having more bandwidth would cause anymore damage... people would still use it for the same purpose, just more of it (information, music, movies, porn, maliciousness, et el)
Let's get one thing clear here. Bell, just like its brethren Telcos in the US, exist solely because of taxpayer subsidizing via right-of-ways, last mile, etc. These companies have been getting money twice from the public; once through the subsidies, and then again by charging the customers. For all intents and purposes the taxpayers own most of those pipes, and I think the threat should be "If you don't start a) properly reporting the real speeds customers can expect, we're going to start charging you property taxes on all those wires running across public lands."
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Not one. I worked in their tech support for nearly 5 years and never once got a complaint about congestion. Plenty of complaints about slow speeds - but those issues were always due to poor sync - crappy 100 year old phone lines rusted to the point where you had to keep getting them to repeat themselves over the static. If a customer called to have line work done, if the problem was outside the demarc - they were promptly told no. Inside the house they would do because they get to hose the customer for a few hundred more dollars - for each visit (minimum 3 because they won't fix it right the first time.) Usually the technician would show up at the customer's house, call in to their dispatch that the customer wasn't home (although they never bothered to check) and leave a bill in the mailbox. If the customer didn't pay it they'd simply get their services cut off.