Pretty Much All Canadian ISPs Are Slowing Down P2P
from the often-without-congestion dept
A new study up in Canada suggests that pretty much all of the major ISPs are now throttling P2P activity -- with some admitting they do so even if there's no sign of actual congestion on the network. Of course, if there were enough competition (don't laugh) this would be an opportunity for a smart ISP to highlight and promote the fact that they don't throttle any kind of traffic, and aren't lying when they tell their customers what kind of bandwidth they sell.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: canada, traffic shaping
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Every broadband account has both bandwidth and usage capped by the speed that they sell you. I don't care what you do, if you have a 6Mb connection, there's no way you're going to be able to get 7Mb. The speed you can use also limits the amount you can download each month, which is, in effect, a usage cap.
The ISPs are liars because they sell you an account that is already speed and usage capped, knowing full well that they can't support that level of service.
Gee, maybe I need to start throttling, or capping my monthly payments...
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Bell also throttles resellers
The cable providers are just as bad. From DSLReports.com I've heard that there is only one third-party ISP brave enough to resell Rogers wholesale broadband, and that gets throttled too.
There won't be true competition until the third-party providers have their own tubes into their customers' premises. After digital TV is enabled in Canada (2011) I hope all that surplus TV bandwidth gets auctioned off to independent ISPs.
Wireless will be the salvation of us all.
--Bob.
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Re: Bell also throttles resellers
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Re: Re: Bell also throttles resellers
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Re: Re: Re: Bell also throttles resellers
And with the few people who would notice the difference, its not likely to be a profitable venture.
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Re: Re: Bell also throttles resellers
@Bob: Don't forget, Canada is huge. That's why it costs so much for us, because they compensate for people living in the middle of nowhere. Unlike Hong Kong, where a building has 8 units per floor x 40 floors. That's 320 customers in a building. Therefore, less cabling = less costs, = higher speeds.
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Re: Re: Re: Bell also throttles resellers
It costs so much because competition is minimal.
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TANSTAAFL
I still say ISPs should move off the current flat rate system and let users pay for bandwidth used.
You want to run a torrent system 24/7/365 at 7Mbps? Fine. That'll be $500 a month please. Next customer.
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I hate R0gers!
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Not seeing it.
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ISP Throttling
I check my DL and UL speeds first thing every time I log on and get consistent results that are as promised.
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Re: ISP Throttling
2) Throttling and Shaping kicks in after a period of time so:
a) speed tests are useless (and ISPs have been known to crank up the rates when you go to sites such as www.speakeasy.net/speedtest)
b) You would have to test for approximately an hour in most cases before you would notice a hit.
3) I wouldn't be surprised if you actually get slightly better than you pay for initially. I suppose that's the alleged "speed boost" with Comcast. Too bad it kills my download rate after 20-30 minutes to about 5kb/s. Makes buying Steam games a little rough.
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Re: ISP Throttling
Many of the speed checkers out there only run for a limited time, measured in milliseconds, prior to producing a result. The throttling, typically, is delayed - for whatever reason. The end result is that you may not be geting what you have measured.
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Misleading
DSL providers are being forced throttled by Bell. It's an extremely anit-competitive maneuver that should be illegal, and is most places.
Cable is a localized monopoly in most places in Canada, so once again, no choices, because none are allowed.
This is just the government giving big corporations the right to screw over the people. And with conservatives in charge, that won't change.
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speed throttling
All terrorists please come to australia and kill this twit.
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idiot policiticans
Every one in the world please make a point of laughing at him all day every day forever. He is the biggest idiot of idiots.
I hate stephen conroy. he is an idiot. i hate this twit.
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Leave me alone
Look I use my VPN to get access to my research on my home computer, this capping and "filtering" has affected me in the past by interupting any SSH session I had, and IRC session I had, randomly disconnecting ANY encrypted connection. So I switched from Rogers, because they didn't seem to care if I could stay connected to a host for an hour or not. I switched to teksavvy who has been great but then Bell came in, my speeds dropped significantly and my normal NON-ILLEGAL traffic to get shaped or capped.
I just want an ISP who won't fuck with me. I'll pay for it!
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Re: Leave me alone
I don't know why it makes the rest of us look terrible. In fact the point is : ISPs are service providers, they have no fucking business knowing or caring about what you do with your connection, unless they have a court order to wiretap you. Period.
Last time I checked porn was not illegal in Canada, and illegal downloading, if done on an industrial scale, will most likely give someone a reason to get a wiretap order against you. Treating ordinary people like criminals doesn`t deter crime, it encourages it.
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Not Just P2P throttled
As in my business I do a lot of data transfer via FTP it sucks ...
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I think I am safe for now
I feel everyone's pain though, as I would hate it if it got slower.
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