Canada Resorts to Net ''Throttling'' as Last Resort
Canada is cracking down on heavy bandwidth usage by allowing Internet "throttling."
Reuters reports that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canada's main telecom regulator, will allow Internet Service Providers to "throttle" traffic as a last resort. The CRTC said earlier today that BCE and other ISPs will need to rely on "economic measures" first and foremost to tackle the bandwidth hogging file-sharing that is threatening to overwhelm the networks.
By using economic measures, ISPs would limit bandwidth altogether, putting a cap on the total amount of data consumers use each month. If the Internet subscriber goes over the limit, then the impact of the overage ends up on the bill. While this may preserve network stability to some degree, today's ruling by the CRTC has naturally angered many Canadian Internet users.
But if capping the bandwidth doesn't work, then the CRTC gives ISPs the right to use a stricter resolution. "Technical means to manage traffic, such as traffic shaping, should only be employed as a last resort," the CRTC said in a statement. Unfortunately, this would affect everyone on the ISP's overall network, not just the bandwidth hogs.
The CRTC also said that throttling shouldn't come without warning, advising ISPs to give "retail" consumers at least 30 days notice and "wholesale" consumers at least 60 days notice before putting on the brakes.
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omg, why
well, 60gb on my rogers plan is good enough. 
And its another step backwards for canada
Backwards for western nations forward for others.
one giant leap for money hungry ISPs and one step backwards for the Canadians, they will come for the rest of us soon.
Alright, now all the "unlimited" ISP's for 30$ are going down... yay!
That, in my opinion is just plain dumb, I've actually stopped pirating stuff a year or two ago, since it was simpler to buy the product (music/movie/games) online rather than trying to get it from a torrent site. So basically by putting "brakes" to the file sharing is actually (in my case) going to hurt the economy for digital distribution that I find so convenient.
I recently bought all the Half-Life 2's and Far Cry 2 because of a good deal on Steam... all together that's probably over 30-40gbs of pure download... LEGALLY. Again I think all this "anti-piracy" move is hurting more the real customers rather than the pirates. I see a point though, I'll spend less money all together on entertainment and go finish modding my car for drifting this winter
if there isn't enough internet for everybody the this is what will have to happen. hopefully it doesn't come come down to more extreme tactics to limit the flow of internet.
Curse our absurdly low population density!
i say boycott, i dont want our greedy isp's getting any ideas here in america. i know its already been a idea here, i just dont want it to be a "well everybody else is doing it"
if they went even stricter on internet usage, dial up would become the new broadband. 56 kilobits anyone?
Bandwidth throttling =/= download caps
The few ruining it for the many.
Curse our absurdly low population density!
Yeah but, think how it would be the other way around.
Curse our absurdly low population density!
Yeah, lets start shagging like crazy.
BTW, theyve been doing it for awhile now. How is this news.
I've actually bought alot of things online now.. And I almost always pay overages now.. hmmm We have alot of good things here in Canada, but alot of silly things too.. LOL O well still beats the heck out of dial up...
And the ISP provide alot of revenue for the government as a whole, so why wouldnt they side with the ISPs, just like the oil companies..? We're not gonna stop driving our cars, nor are we gonna stop having high speed internet. So why wouldnt the government want to get on that bandwagon too..? Just makes good tax based sense. Why not just stick it to the people..? AGAIN!!! and as far a few ruining it for the rest of us.. they are just trying to turn us against ourselves... smart business sense... keep that finger pointed away from where the real problem lies. TAX BASE.... the more these greedy companies make the larger the tax base, its just that simple...
I'm just glad WOW! isn't doing this
I think as long as you're going directly through the backbone instead of retailers like Rogers and Bell, you should be OK.
All Australian "unlimited" internet plans are download capped, we are probably worse than most 3rd world countries.
This is absolute bs. Bell and Rogers are already charging out the ass for internet. The speed is $h!t, they THROTTLE ALREADY ALL THE F***ING TIME (ex. Rogers and Bell Torrent throttle during the day, usually between 8am-8pm)!!! They now cap you at an absurd 90GB (let's be honest, if you stream movies using Netflix on BluRay that's 3 movies per month and you are at your bandwidth cap. Not to mention downloading music as well.). The CRTC are a bunch of idiots who are hell bent on screwing the consumer because they can control everything (ex. TV, Radio, Internet, etc.)!
If the bandwidth hogging is so bad I have 2 questions...
1) How were we able to do it last year when there was no cap and no one said $h!t all about it?
2) If it is getting so bad why not upgrade everyone to FIOS instead of stupid Cable and DSL which will allows higher bandwidth? Why not improve the methods of delivering the internet to the consumer to be more efficient so that signal is not lost as you are further away from the switching station (as happens frequently with Bell)?
Screw the CRTC and screw Throttling and Bandwidth Caps!!!
As I recall, there are already network devices that are very capable of managing the bandwidth across a dynamic range of users. Say for the last minute, the device determined there were 50 users/ips (based on the upload stream packets). Based on that, it calculates BOTH the guaranteed bandwidth and burst/maximum/capped bandwidth for each ip. It does so every minute or n minutes.
So say the total limit is 50mbps. In the last minute, there were 50 active ips. The guaranteed bandwidth then is roughly 1mbps. The burst/maximum/capped bandwidth could either be the whole 50mbps or rule-/equation-based that could result to, say, 10mbps.
Of course, these devices are placed at, or near, the last node (where users/last mile connections are connected). Not only are they probably cheaper than DPIs and more automated than ISPs blindly throttling, but also it won't unnecessarily throttle users in areas where there are few active/heavy users.
Odd Northwestel and Bell Sympatico already been doing this before they were allowed to
I wonder if anyone else has thought of this.
How about, instead of "capping" and "throttling" they either make the lines capable of supporting the speed they are offering OR make the speeds within what their equipment is capable of?
OH NO, that would mean that they would have to be honest... Nevermind.
Not like I don't already have a cap; it's set at 100GB for the month. I'm quickly approaching it and it's still the third week.
I hate the CRTC. I hope we're more like Japan.
One way to circumvent this disaster is to sign up with a smaller ISP, since all DSL connections are handled by Bell anyways.
I personally have teksavvy as my ISP and they charge 30 bucks for 200gb/month or unlimited somehow for 40.
Actually, I just went to Teksavvys' website and found this banner ad about a price hike on internet usage. You should check it out.
http://www.teksavvy.com/en/content.asp?ID=7&mID=1
It's the one called WARNING etc...
...
Shaw Cable (Canada) has been throttling and capping for years now...
How the fuck is this news?
...
The ONLY thing that saves my ass is that they etremely poorly monitor my bandwidth. They report my used bandwidth was like 50GB when it was 200GB etc.
I also had issues were my speed would throttle when using it for prolonged periods (however, no longer done... for now).
Doesn't help my ISP (Shaw Cable) give me a 15:1 doanload/upload ratio (1MB/s:50KB/s... bytes, not bits).
One way to circumvent this disaster is to sign up with a smaller ISP, since all DSL connections are handled by Bell anyways.I personally have teksavvy as my ISP and they charge 30 bucks for 200gb/month or unlimited somehow for 40.
Holy shit I love teksavvy... I'd buy a dual line with them! (Same price as my current would be anyways)... too bad they're not in Alberta...
I wonder if anyone else has thought of this.How about, instead of "capping" and "throttling" they either make the lines capable of supporting the speed they are offering OR make the speeds within what their equipment is capable of?OH NO, that would mean that they would have to be honest... Nevermind.
ha...
When they were fucking with the cables in my area, I was reaching 3megabytes/second or more...that didn't last long, but hey, it was awesome.
They certainly are taking a bloody shit on us...
In Canada, didn't the government pay to install all the cables anyways?
Maintenence costs are extremely low...
So, then, what exactly is their excuse for charging us so much?
...
Think I may have attempt to have a little discussion with my ISP to see what they say.
There are plenty of unprotected networks around me to tap into if this bandwidth cap crap takes hold in the U.S.A.
I'll use my neighbors broadband (very fast) for downloads or watching broadband videos.I feel sorry for you folks in Canada.
Well, Canadians are like sheep. You can even cut them with a knife and they won't say anything. No wonder the government is pushing them around.
Alright, now all the "unlimited" ISP's for 30$ are going down... yay!That, in my opinion is just plain dumb, I've actually stopped pirating stuff a year or two ago, since it was simpler to buy the product (music/movie/games) online rather than trying to get it from a torrent site. So basically by putting "brakes" to the file sharing is actually (in my case) going to hurt the economy for digital distribution that I find so convenient. I recently bought all the Half-Life 2's and Far Cry 2 because of a good deal on Steam... all together that's probably over 30-40gbs of pure download... LEGALLY. Again I think all this "anti-piracy" move is hurting more the real customers rather than the pirates. I see a point though, I'll spend less money all together on entertainment and go finish modding my car for drifting this winter
This may be 30-40GB of legal download but it still would be off the cap of whatever your ISP would set it at. To me this will give the right to cap even the most uber ISP package, no matter how expensive you bought it at and that philosophy would trickle downhill. We're going back to the mid 90's way of having internet access. The illegal file sharing mongers out there have messed it up for themselves and everyone else. But not to worry, they have no guilt about it. They fall into the class of "want something for nothing" crowd.
This may be 30-40GB of legal download but it still would be off the cap of whatever your ISP would set it at. To me this will give the right to cap even the most uber ISP package, no matter how expensive you bought it at and that philosophy would trickle downhill. We're going back to the mid 90's way of having internet access. The illegal file sharing mongers out there have messed it up for themselves and everyone else. But not to worry, they have no guilt about it. They fall into the class of "want something for nothing" crowd.
Blaming the file sharing crowd?
Do you know Canadian law on file sharing? It's actually legal (though the use of software you don't own is entirely a different debate, in Canadian law atleast).
Some people pirate just because they don't have the cash, or wouldn't buy it normally. I buy games quite often, usually console games, but I do believe in the policy 'if you like it, buy it'. I've spend thousands on legit games, but I've also downloaded a terabyte or two...
I was also without a job for two years.
Stealing is stealing, I'll admit that, but I feel no woe fore file sharing. The companies still get plenty of my money, but instead of, say, 12 games a year (all bought at $60), I get 30 (8 @ $60, 22 for free). I actually feel bad if I can't get a good upload ratio (being my extremely limited upload speed).
I'll gladly go buy games that are on both PC and console for PC too if most ports weren't absolutely horrid...
I bought GTA4 for console, but 'shared' for PC... what a mess that was.
My ISP (Shaw Cable) actually gives people recommended torrent settings...
http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/CustomerC [...] orrent.htm
They suggest uploading damn near nothing though...
Even if I was buying most of my PC games, I'd be downloading them still. So, how does that change a thing?
http://www.competitivebroadband.com/ DON'T LET THIS RULING PASS!!!!!!
seriously go sign the petition, this is rediculous!
god forbid broadband companies actually spend some money and try to bring fiber optic to everyone's house in major metro area's! I've had the same cable service for over 10 years now, and it's barely progressed over that timeframe. When we got the service, it was a 5mb line, it's now rated at 15mb, a step in the right direction, but honestly, 10mb increase over 10 years? that's just sad. We all know the major companies just don't want to dip into their profit margins to upgrade their network infrastructure so they've been trying to squeeze every last dime out of what they got. Now they're trying to pave the way to more profit on the same crappy old buisness model. Static buisness models like this just make me want to move to one of the countries in europe that already have fiber. Capping existing networks isn't the solution, if you can't handle the network load then it's obviously time for some massive upgrades!!!!!! DUH!!