Bell fires back at CAIP appeal on wholesale traffic shaping, no decision soon

Bell Canada is dismissing an appeal by the Canadian Association of Internet Providers and other parties to overturn a CRTC decision that allows the ILEC to keep throttling wholesale bandwidth, saying its critics are re-hashing old arguments and unfounded allegations for a decision they “are simply unhappy with”. Bell says that CAIP et al are “trying to relitigate all of the issues that have already been addressed by the commission.” CAIP with support from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and Vaxination Informatique each filed separate appeals of a November CRTC ruling (Decision 2008-108) allowing Bell to manage the traffic of its gateway access service (GAS) wholesale customers. In that same decision, the CRTC initiated a consultation (Public Notice 2008-19) on ISPs Internet traffic management practices. CAIP et al note in their appeals that the CRTC shouldn’t have come to that conclusion because since it initiated a new broader consultation, it didn’t have all the facts necessary to render a decision in the CAIP vs. Bell case. CAIP et al say the facts won’t be known until after the commission makes a decision in the traffic management practices public proceeding and therefore should order Bell to stop throttling ISPs wholesale traffic until such time as it renders a decision. Bell tells the CRTC in comments to the CAIP et al application that what the group is requesting is outside the scope of the original Bell vs. CAIP case. “They fail to acknowledge that the CAIP Proceeding was simply pertaining to the shaping by Bell Canada of P2P file-sharing traffic of its wholesale GAS service,” the company writes. “The applicants are simply unhappy with the result of Decision 2008-108. It is therefore to their advantage to claim that PN 2008-19 simply reexamines the same issues and is useless in light of Decision 2008-108. The applicants ignore the fact that PN 2008-19 is clearly broader in its scope as it is examining various types of Internet traffic management practices used by ISPs and their appropriateness under the Act.” Any decision on this application will likely be set aside for the time being since the CRTC is preparing to kick off a public hearing on ISPs traffic management practices in July. The proceeding will hear from a wide range of parties, from the large and small ISPs to content related companies as well as the technology providers. The hearing will begin with a presentation from Sandvine, the industry’s most recognized provider of traffic shaping technology. The Waterloo ON-based company will be followed by Juniper Networks. The last three days will feature the ISPs – cable, DSL and satellite – as well as the ISP associations. Sandwiched in the middle of the hearing will be content stakeholders such as the Canadian Independent Record Production Association, the Canadian Film & Television Production Association, Score Media and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists.

Bell fires back at CAIP appeal on wholesale traffic shaping, no decision soon

News | June 25, 2009

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us