Post Tagged with: "bell"

Telecom Giants Lure Ex-Cabinet Ministers to their Boardrooms

Appeared in the Toronto Star on August 14, 2011 as Telecoms Lure Ex-Ministers in Boardrooms Telecom policies, particularly Internet and wireless issues, have generated enormous public interest over the past year. Politicians have evidently taken note with all political parties expressing concern over Internet data caps, net neutrality, and the […]

August 16, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Columns Archive

What Does a Gigabyte Cost, Revisited

Earlier this year, I wrote a report and a blog post that attempted to estimate the cost for Canadian ISPs to transport a gigabyte of data. While there is nothing magical about a gigabyte, since overage charges typically levy by the gigabyte, it is useful to link actual costs with consumer costs that can reach as much as $10 per gigabyte. In fact, this data is likely to become increasingly important as the wholesale usage based billing battle has shifted toward a cost-based approach.

Unfortunately, there is little reliable information on actual costs with ISPs typically claiming that such information is a trade secret that should be kept confidential. My report noted that there are two elements to the actual costs. One is the Internet-facing data costs, which arise once a user’s traffic travels onto the public Internet. This cost is very low, estimated in the report at about one cent per GB and falling. This is consistent with public transit arrangement pricing and is likely even cheaper for large ISPs that use peering arrangements to cover off most actual costs.

The more difficult calculation involves the internal ISP network leading to the public Internet. As CRTC Commissioner Candice Molnar noted during the usage based billing hearing, “we all, I think, can hopefully agree that there is no marginal cost to using the network when you are not causing augmentation.” While there are no marginal costs, there is a capital cost of building the network and ongoing maintenance and augmentation costs when congestion arises due to traffic growth. My report used Bell’s data in the deferral account case (one of the only ones to put information on the public record) to estimate that seven cents per gigabyte (for a total of eight cents) was a best guess among a range of possibilities.

July 29, 2011 — 46 comments — News

Canada’s Net Neutrality Enforcement Failure

Two years ago, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission conducted a much-publicized hearing on net neutrality, which examined whether new rules were needed to govern how Internet providers managed their networks. While many Internet users remain unaware of the issue, behind the scenes Internet providers employ a variety of mechanisms to control the flow of traffic on their networks, with some restricting or throttling the speeds for some applications.

The Commission unveiled its Internet traffic management practices in October 2009, establishing enforceable guidelines touted as the world’s first net neutrality regulations. Where a consumer complains, Internet providers are required to describe their practices, demonstrate their necessity, and establish that they discriminate as little as possible. Targeting specific applications or protocols may warrant investigation and slowing down time-sensitive traffic likely violates current Canadian law.

While there was a lot to like about the CRTC approach, the immediate concern was absence of an enforcement mechanism. Much of the responsibility for gathering evidence and launching complaints was left to individual Canadians who typically lack the expertise to do so. Nearly two years later, my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) posts an investigation into the system that reveals those concerns were well-founded.

Although the CRTC has not publicly disclosed details on net neutrality complaints and the resulting investigations, I recently filed an Access to Information request to learn more about what has been taking place behind the scenes. A review of hundreds of pages of documents discloses that virtually all major Canadian ISPs have been the target of complaints, but there have been few, if any, consequences arising from the complaints process. In fact, the CRTC has frequently dismissed complaints as being outside of the scope of the policy, lacking in evidence, or sided with Internet provider practices.

July 8, 2011 — 29 comments — Columns

Bell Pays $10 Million To Settle Misleading Advertising Claim

Bell has settled a Competition Bureau complaint over misleading advertising dating back to 2007. Bell agreed to pay $10 million, the maximum permitted under the Competition Act, and cover $100,000 in investigation expenses. The company denies wrongdoing, however, stating that it “fundamentally disagrees” with the Bureau.

June 29, 2011 — 3 comments — News

OECD Report Ranks Canada Among Most Expensive Broadband Countries

The OECD has released its latest round of data on broadband services in 33 of the world’s most developed countries [update: While today’s release is new and incorporates this information into the OECD Communications Outlook 2011, a reader points out the broadband data was first released two months ago]. While […]

June 23, 2011 — 19 comments — News