Early last month, Michael Geist, a Canadian law professor, published a list of consumer complaints filed against Canadian ISPs with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CTRC), the regulatory body whose mandate is “to ensure that both the broadcasting and telecommunications systems serve the Canadian public.”
The CRTC does not publicly disclosed details on net neutrality complaints and investigations, but Geist filed an Access to Information request to gain access to the information, dating back to late 2009. The documents showed that virtually all major Canadian ISPs have been the target of complaints. Despite this, the CRTC has only acted to enforce regulations in a fraction of the complaints brought before them.
Looking at the graphs, two things immediately become apparent: there are a huge number of net neutrality complaints (nearly 60% of all registered complaints) and the CRTC doesn’t seems too keen on flexing its regulatory muscle. The CRTC only stepped in to enforce regulations three times – less than 10% of all cases brought before it.
Mouse over the graphs for more detail. The table below contains all the documentation posted on Geist’s site. The table can be filtered by keyword or you can sort it by clicking on the table header.
Much thanks to Michael Geist for his tireless efforts keeping Canada’s Internet open!
Complaints Registered with the CRTC 2009-2011
ISP
Date
CRTC Number
Complaint
Resolution
Rogers
February 2011
514192
Throttling of World of Warcraft online game. Leads to regular disconnection.
Denied. Rogers says throttling practices have no effect on online gaming (later reverse)
Rogers
May 2011
534293
Degrading Skype, Net2Phone
Ongoing
Bell
December 2009
475593
Bell throttling access to MediaMonkey.com
Denied. CRTC says Bell’s disclosure page does not reference site, so problem may lie with the site itself.
Bell
May 2011
526400
Throttling applications even when no network congestion. (TekSavvy is also named in the complaint.)
Denied. Burden on the complainant to provide evidence. No evidence provided of specific apps or length of time affected.
Barrett Xplore
January 2010
8646-C12-2008154000
ExaTEL complains Barrett Xplore throttling renders Internet telephony unusable, creating an unfair advantage for its own voice telephone service. Traffic management policies not fully disclosed.
CRTC rules not an undue preference since Barrett Xplore runs voice traffic on a separate circuit. Further rules that throttling violates rules for degrating time sensitive traffic and requires change to policy or application for CRTC approval. Barrett Xplore changes traffic management approach. CRTC also rules that dislosure insufficient. Barrett Xplore non-responsive until May 2011, when CRTC threatens to take the issue to a public proceeding.
Rogers
March 2010
486625
Throttling affecting corporate VPN connection
Rogers policy says it does not affect VPN. Contact Rogers. If unsatisfied and you have evidence of rule violation, provide evidence for further consideration.
Cogeco
March 2010
482415
Traffic management policy involves throttling 24/7
Denied. CRTC asks complainant for more evidence of policy and harm.
Bell
July 2010
496316
Traffic management policy overbroad
Denied.
Rogers
March 2011
522253
Throttling of World of Warcraft online game. Leads to regular disconnection.
Admits problem and promises to fix.
Bruce Street Technologies
July 2010
496016
Throttling traffic without disclosure.
Admits throttling for brief period without disclosure. Subsequently dropped throttling practices.
Rogers
August 2010
496562
Claim throttling speeds on xBox usage
Rogers denies the claim.
Wind Mobile
August 2010
496185
Speed slowed after 5 GB of usage on all Internet traffic. Lack of disclosure on Fair Use Policy.
CRTC says slowing usage of any time sensitive traffic would be a violation of ITMP rules or require CRTC approval. Says disclosure inadequate.
Wind Mobile
September 2010
494833
Port blocking restricts some uses and not properly disclosed.
CRTC says disclosure inadequate. Agrees to amend disclosure page.
Rogers
February 2011
505052
Disclosure of throttling practices inadequate as effect of upload throttling not fully discussed
Agrees to amend disclosure page
Telco Quadro Communications
October 2010
502906
Change in traffic management practices.
Denied. Practices ruled consistent with net neutrality guidelines.
Bell
November 2010
504432
Throttling speeds for downloads from hotfile.com
Admits error. Deep packet inspection technology mistakenly treating downloads as peer-to-peer traffic. Promises to fix, but denies any violation of CRTC rules.
Barrett Xplore
February 2011
512810
Traffic management dramatic effect on services.
Denied. No evidence of violation.
Rogers
February 2011
514192
Throttling renders service useless.
Denied. Company provides disclosure and no evidence of non-compliant policies.
Shaw
December 2009
475351
Blocking Skype users from accessing BC numbers.
Require Shaw account information before proceeding.
Barrett Xplore
June 2010
494139
Bad service with slow speeds
Outside the scope of ITMP policy.
Rogers
July 2010
494836
Problems with SIP (session initiation protocol) on Port 5060.
Admits problem but argues it is not a traffic management issue.
Rogers
February 2011
503207
Disclosure of throttling practices inadequate as effect of upload throttling not fully discussed
Agrees to amend disclosure page
Rogers
December 2010
505777
Rogers customer service providing conflicting information about throttling practices
Acknowledges incorrect information provided by one representative.
Uniserve
January 2011
510718
Traffic shaping hurts some applications. Flash video very slow.
Agrees to amend disclosure page.
Rogers
February 2011
510987
Disclosure of throttling practices inadequate as effect of upload throttling not fully discussed
Agrees to amend disclosure page
Rogers
February 2011
511366
Disclosure of throttling practices inadequate as effect of upload throttling not fully discussed
Agrees to amend disclosure page
Rogers
April 2011
517209
Throttling of World of Warcraft online game. Leads to regular disconnection.
Admits problem and promises to fix.
Rogers
March 2011
517209
Throttling of World of Warcraft online game. Leads to regular disconnection.
Admits problem and promises to fix. “Problem is not due to a Rogers’ policy but rather due to a software problem which we will fix as soon as possible”
Telus
March 2011
527577
General throttling concerns.
Telus works with customer to address speed problems.
Videotron
May 2011
528197
Calculation of bandwidth usage. Monthly usage not charged fairly.
Denied. No regulation of retail services. Referred to CCTS.
Bell
March 2011
529146
Limiting HTTP upload rates and limiting upload on port 55145.
Unknown
Rogers
March 2011
529411
Advertising of Speed Boost inconsistent with World of Warcraft throttling.
Denied. Marketing outside of policy. No evidence of violation provided.
Rogers
May 2011
529619
Throttling of peer-to-peer applications.
Denied. Rogers discloses this practice.
Rogers
April 2011
530230
Throttling of World of Warcraft online game. Leads to regular disconnection.
Admits problem and promises to fix.
Shaw
May 2011
533015
Inability to see monthly Internet usage
Shaw deactivated feature when it dropped usage based billing.
Shaw
June 2011
538009
Intercepting failed domain name requests and redirecting to company pages
Ongoing
Source: michaelgeist.ca