Post Tagged with: "Shaw"

Shaw Files Suit Against Novus Over Claims

The CBC reports that Shaw has filed a defamation suit against Novus over its claims about Shaw's aggressive pricing in Vancouver.

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August 25, 2009 2 comments News

Shaw Drops “Price Bomb” on Fibre Competitor

Shaw has dropped a "price bomb" on Novus Entertainment, a small cable operator in Vancouver, BC.  Novus is offering fibre-to-the-home is some residential buildings in the city.  In response, Shaw is offering those customers 15Mbps service with a 100GB cap for $9.95, 200 channels of TV service (with 25 high-definition […]

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July 30, 2009 14 comments News

CRTC Network Management Hearing, Day Six: Union des Consommateurs, Rogers, Videotron, Shaw

Day six of the CRTC's network management hearings opened with a final consumer group (Union des Consommateurs) and closed with three of Canada's biggest ISPs – Rogers, Videotron, and Shaw.  Bell was scheduled to appear today but has been pushed back until Tuesday.

The big storyline of the day was the disclosure by Rogers and Shaw of previously undisclosed information.  Rogers revealed its traffic management practices (throttling P2P upload speeds) and shockingly admitted that all its tiers receive the same upload treatment, regardless of the price paid by the consumer.  This is true even though its promotional material tell customers that higher tiered service offer faster upload speeds. Shaw disclosed that it engages in similar practices and provided insight into its throttling practices, noting that it guarantees 80 kilobits per second for throttled P2P sessions and that it reserves 30 percent of its bandwidth for P2P use (it said that 10 percent of its users account for the P2P traffic).
Videotron, the third cable ISP in the mix, complicated the analysis further by noting that it does not traffic shape.  Rather, it uses economic measures, the new euphamism for bit caps, to discourage overuse of P2P.  The ISP indicated that it is very happy with the effectiveness of its approach.

Today's summary was again compiled by Sean Murtha, a law student at the University of Ottawa.  Other coverage available from the National Post liveblog, CBC.ca, the National Post, Cartt.ca, and twitter feeds from CIPPIC and me.

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July 14, 2009 15 comments News

CRTC Net Neutrality Hearings Open Amid ISPs’ Conflicting Claims

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hosts long-awaited network management hearings this week, pitting Canada’s telecom and cable companies against a broad range of consumer, creator, and technology groups in a fight that may help clarify whether Canada has – or should have – net neutrality laws.

The telecom and cable companies will likely maintain that managing their networks, which may include using "deep packet inspection" to identify subscriber activity and limiting available bandwidth for certain applications (a practice known as throttling), is essential to ensure optimal access for all subscribers. Consumer associations, independent Internet service providers (ISPs), broadcasters, creator groups, and technology companies are likely to warn against network management practices that raise competition, privacy, and consumer rights concerns.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that as the Commission weighs the various claims, it would do well to consider the testimony it heard just a few months ago during the February new media hearings.  The issue at play at those hearings was whether ISPs should face a levy to fund new media or be required to prioritize Canadian content (the CRTC declined to do both in its decision released last month). Interestingly, the same telecom and cable companies that will now argue that managing their networks is essential, offered a somewhat different take when confronted with the prospect of doing so in the name of supporting Canadian content.  

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July 6, 2009 21 comments Columns

Net Neutrality Hearings Open With Conflicting Claims

Appeared in the Toronto Star on July 6, 2009 as Neutrality Hearings Begin With Conflicting Claims The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hosts long-awaited network management hearings this week, pitting Canada’s telecom and cable companies against a broad range of consumer, creator, and technology groups in a fight that may […]

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July 6, 2009 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive