Internet Founder Speaks Out About ISPs

Vint Cerf, the man who developed the technical principles on which the internet works, has come out swinging at telephone and cable companies over their attempts to arbitrarily control the infrastructure. "Basically, it's like little kids in a tantrum: 'I'm not going to build this system unless you give me three scoops of ice cream and a pony,'" he said in a video posted on the blog on Tuesday. "My reaction to this is quite negative. It's harmful to the national interest to behave in this way because it is serious infrastructure — it's very much like the road ways." The debate has raged on in Canada this year as phone giant Bell has employed bandwidth throttling techniques that have caught the attention of smaller ISPs who buy capacity from them. "We have to provide incentives that cause those companies to behave differently or create an incentive for a competitor to put in facilities that will compete with them. I want to take away their monopoly mandate," Cerf said. "We have to make it a privilege to build the infrastructure. There has to be a reasonable rate of return, but it cannot be a confiscatory rate of return and it cannot be abused by allowing people to throttle competitors." Vint Cerf now works for Google as senior vice-president. CBC Story here.

Italian Researchers Identify Encrypted File Sharing Packets

For ISPs, like Bell and Rogers, who practice throttling techniques to discourage file sharing the results of some Italian research will be good news. Until now file sharing users could twart the throttling efforts of their ISP by encrypting the files they were sharing rendering them unrecognizable. A team of Italian researchers from the University of Brescia, has devised a method that they have demonstrated can catch these "hidden" file-sharing packets with up to 90 per cent accuracy. Their method "involves measuring the size and frequency of the discrete "packets" of data that a file-sharing program sends out over, and receives back from, the internet." The results of their experiments are impressive, if you are an ISP, "First and foremost, virtually no legitimate traffic is blocked by our mechanism," the Brescia engineers report. "Second, and equally important, the vast majority of [illegitimate] traffic is blocked by the mechanism." CBC Story here.

ISP's Take On Bell Over Traffic-Shaping Policy

In mid-March, Canadian telecom giant Bell extended its "traffic-shaping" policy to the smaller independent companies that rent its network. Under traffic shaping, Bell identifies certain Internet applications, like BitTorrent, and throttles bandwidth to customers using these protocols during peak traffic periods. The Canadian Association of Internet Providers, which has 55 members that represent about 100,000 customers across Canada, has asked the CRTC (Canadian Radio Telecommunication Commission) to issue a cease-and-desist order on Bell's throttling of their Internet speeds. The companies are arguing that Bell has an unfair advantage against them, particularly because it sells its own competing Internet services under the Sympatico brand. In a filing to the CRTC, the association says Bell's action has "caused serious degradation of the performance and service speeds of the retail internet access and other services offered by independent ISPs," In it's defense Bell representative Mirko Bibic says "We're taking reasonable steps in a very objective fashion to manage the issue. Wholesale and retail operations are being treated exactly the same so there is no issue about undue preference or discrimination."

It will be interesting to see how the CRTC rules on this, but even if it rules in the favour of the independent companies, has Bell already caused them irreparable harm?

Illegal Downloads... No More Internet For You!

A yet to be released government proposal in the UK suggests that ISPs would be required to cut service to users who access pirated content via their networks. The proposal is for a "three strikes" system where first offenses would draw a warning leading to the ultimate revoking of services after a third offense. According to the Times newspaper, a leaked draft paper states: "We will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action on illegal file sharing." The government says the proposal has changed significantly since that report and would not comment on the contents of the leaked document. The association that represents the Internet Service Providers says "ISPs are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the Post Office is able to open every envelope," It sounds like the entertainment industry giants have found some friends within government in the UK. The BBC has the story here.

Want Fast Internet Connection - Move to Quebec.

Quebec now boasts the fastest commercial Internet speeds in North America thanks to a service available to 112,000 households in Laval, just north of Montreal. Service provider Videotron intends to extend the service to Montreal and Quebec City later this year. It provides two tiers of service, a $64.95/month 30-mpbs plan and another at $75.95/month and 50-mbps. According to this CBC article, "Verizon Communications Inc., one of the largest U.S. internet service providers, also offers some customers speeds of up to 50 mbps over its fibre-optic network, but at $139.95 U.S. a month, it's nearly double the cost of Videotron's top service." The system built by Cisco Systems Inc. is said to be capable of 100-mbps speeds but Videotron decided to cap it at 50 because most servers are not able to pump out the information at that speed. "The network was too fast for the internet," says Isabelle Dessureault, general manager of communications for Videotron.

ISP Plans Trial of Pay-Per-Use High Speed Internet

Time Warner Cable Inc. announced yesterday that they were planning a trial to bill their High Speed Internet subscribers based on their amount of usage rather than the typical flat monthly fee. According to a Globe and Mail article, 5% of Time Warner's subscribers account for over 50% of network bandwidth usage and the pay-per-use model should only affect those users. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds; perhaps I'm over simplifying this but wouldn't the other 95% of the current subscribers expect to see their rates stay the same or decrease? I wonder how many Time Warner Cable subscribers will start jumping ship? It seems to me that whenever a company changes their revenue model it does not bode well for the consumer... their attempt at curbing the appetite of the 5% that are heavy users may come at the expense of their average subscriber. You can be sure that if they get away with this, others will be quick to follow.

CRTC changes "winback" legislation... ISP's can beg and bribe to keep your business

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regulates the telephone, cable, and Internet companies in Canada, and until now your current ISP had to wait 90 days to try to woe you back when they received your notice that you were changing providers. The rule, which ended on Friday, was put in place to protect small ISP's and resellers from the likes of Rogers and Bell who obviously have more resources to throw around. All bets are off now, so expect the phones to start ringing and the begging to begin! Thanks CRTC.