All Major Canadian ISPs Slow Down P2P Traffic

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All Major Canadian ISPs Slow Down P2P Traffic
January 20, 2009

Net neutrality really is the hot topic at the moment. After the FCC slapped Comcast for slowing down BitTorrent users, Canada is now looking into the network management practices of its ISPs. And rightly so, as a CRTC investigation reveals that most of the ISPs in Canada actively slow down customers using P2P applications.

Ignited by the Comcast fiasco in the US, the concept of net neutrality has certainly been brought into the mainstream. ISPs are rarely transparent when it comes to their throttling, capping and otherwise interfering behavior, but in Canada they had to come clean due to a CRTC investigation.

The Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is currently looking into the traffic management practices of Canadian ISPs, which came to a head as a result of a dispute between CAIP, and its wholesale provider, Bell. The core objectives of the investigation are to examine the Internet traffic management practices being used, and check that they are in accordance with the Telecommunications Act.

The CRTC is looking at the effects of filtering on both regular customers and wholesalers, and the results of the first round of questions are just in. Even though some of the responses are filed in confidence (summarized by Chris Parsons), there is enough information to conclude that all major ISPs slow down customers, with most specifically targeting peer-to-peer traffic.

In their response to the CRTC investigation, Bell, Cogeco, Rogers and Eastlink all admit to slow down P2P traffic, arguing that it negatively affects network performance. Shaw, one of the other big players, admitted that customers are slowed down, but most of its responses were filed in confidence and P2P was not specifically mentioned.

Bell was more open about its practices, and admits using deep packet inspection (DPI) to throttle its individual customers and wholesalers. On Bell Wireline, P2P traffic is slowed down between 4.30 PM and 2 AM. To cope with the increasing bandwidth demands of its customers, they further plan to disconnect heavy users and introduce metered plans where customers pay for the bandwidth they use.

Cogeco started to throttle P2P users back in 2001, when they were only using a tiny fraction of what they do now. However, it was seen as necessary because of the increasing load these users put on the network. Like other ISPs, Cogeco considered other options such as metered plans, but these would not solve the network ‘abuse’ by P2P users. Furthermore, the ongoing battle with P2P users who strive to evade their management solutions led the ISP to use deep packet inspection (DPI) as well.

Rogers claims it has to throttle P2P users to prevent their network from becoming “the world’s buffet,” as they like to call it. Not only does this affect their network, their bandwidth bills also increased due to the growing popularity of BitTorrent and other filesharing networks. Similar to Bell and Cogeco, Rogers is also known to use DPI. Upstream P2P traffic is slowed down across their entire network, regardless of congestion,

Shaw filed most of its answers in confidence, but provided a rather paradoxical statement which clearly shows that they slow down upstream traffic. “The traffic management technologies have reduced the rate of upstream consumption to a more manageable rate,” they write, claiming that this allows their customers to reach their full contract speeds. Similar to the other ISPs Shaw is predicting that bandwidth usage will grow, and that traffic shaping is essential to manage their network.

In summary, we can conclude that there is no such thing as net neutrality in Canada. All of the larger ISPs slow down their customers, with most of them specifically targeting P2P traffic through deep packet inspection. Because of this, P2P users can’t enjoy the speeds they were promised, and several legitimate businesses whose income depends on delivering content through BitTorrent or other filesharing networks are unable to compete with those who don’t. It’s now up to the CRTC to draw the right conclusions.

:source: Source: All Major Canadian ISPs Slow Down P2P Traffic

2 things that confuse me with these ISPs that cap heavy users.

1: They say you get such and such down and such and such up, but then their network cant handle it, so surely it is their fault for overselling the BW they have in the first place. But the customer gets the brunt of it.

2: I thought that most Broadband packages came as a 20:1/50:1 deal, so you share the connection with 20 or 50 people, so that means the 20:1 or 50:1 that they give you cannot cope with all 20 or 50 maxing out their connections, again surely it would be better, at the start, just to give everyone that is in that 20 or 50 people, the BW each that their part of the network can handle.

so if that little piece of th network can handle 50meg down and 50 meg up, dont sell the slots at 20meg down and 5 meg up each, sell them at 1 meg down and 1 meg up then everyone can max the system 24/7 7 days a week 365 days a year and it does not hurt them.

In the end it is the ISPs fault for telling the customers they can have XX each, when their network cant handle even 10% using that, and overselling in the first place.

They also target VOIP unless you buy THEIR VOIP(and it's bloody expensive+not available everywhere)
or pay for a "quality of service" fee":|

It's also not applied in all areas, or not as severely. Truly bizarre.

gayyyyyy.....i'm skeptical this will affect me though

Not where I live if this link is real ?


http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/bttest.php

This is interesting, I also noticed when checking my Telus internet account usage that my monthly DL limited is now 20GB instead of 60GB. This is supposed to be high speed internet though.....

@All Major Canadian ISPs Slow Down P2P Traffic - its a way but is not the answer. They will find out sooner or later. Is on this moments that a small isp company is almost lawless comparing with bigger ones. At least from my personal experience.

Screw them, I'm using a VPN tunnel when my downloads slow down in the evening and I'm still getting high speed, what are they gonna do about that...

I can't believe they would slow down vpn traffic :sly:

I agree with stoi, they are overselling in the first place and i won't feel ashamed to use their precious bandwidth


But what about newsgroups? Is it only a bittorrent issue?

Stoi's right; the problem isn't the excessive file sharing. The problem is the inauthenticity and sophistry of the ISPs.

The CRTC really needs to enforce net neutrality. The government's responsibility is to protect its citizens from any abuse of a corporation's power. An ISP is the only gateway to the internet, and the gate-keepers are discriminating on who gets in an who comes out in order to primarily serve their own interests.

ISPs aren't protecting their clients from the few file sharers; they are protecting themselves from the few file sharers at the cost of the freedom of all the clients.

Its Saint fucking Peter at the Gates of Heaven.


Defying the principle of net neutrality will only serve as an incentive for the file sharers to develop and/or use more sophisticated technology to evade the ISPs throttling techniques. Sure throttling will inhibit the degree file sharing cuts a hole into their profits, but only for a time; soon a new technology will spread and the whole process will start again and again...

Until the file sharer's technology costs too much or is impossible to throttle; then they will be forced to treat every client equally, by finally reducing their bandwidth.

So keep it up, Canada; you're only delaying the inevitable. The people get what the people want...

Bell does throttle from 4:30pm to 2am. It actually slows it down to a crawl.
I agree with Stoi, they are selling more than they can give and then they blame the clients for putting to much strain on their bandwidth.
It pisses me off. I wish I could find a company that does not throttle in Canada.

eastlink doesn't trottle which is osome!!

This is a bit off topic but what happened to that Bill in Canada where ISP providers were suppose to turn in customers who illegally downloaded music, movies and software, for a 500 dollar fine per download.

We need fiber .