Wirelessnorth.ca

The answers so far are no, yes and maybe. Depending who you ask.

Brush up on the announcement and initial reactions here: Peter Nowak has excellent coverage today of the CRTC call (long time coming) on net neutrality in Canada. Michael Geist and Ars Technica offer some balanced opinion.

What everyone seems to agree on is that CRTC’s framework is reasonable, and is highly progressive relative to where the debate was just a year or more ago. We’ve argued in the past for economic solutions to ISP capacity which is what the CRTC is also stressing.

When it comes possible dirty tricks with packets, the problem will be in enforcement. It’s not clear that the framework will result in ISPs changing any of their current practices (other than increased disclosure). For those of us on teksavvy connections, now perhaps stuck for all time at 5MBps and throttled during all waking hours, that doesn’t sound too hopeful.

Under the framework if there are violations, it’s up to consumers to make a complaint. In the event of a complaint it would then be up to the CRTC to take however long it might take to follow up (for example, it’s now taken about 3-4 years since the ISPs started toying with throttling/DPI for the CRTC to address the issue of net neutrality) and when the CRTC makes a ruling they may side either way. The ISPs have a fair degree of leeway in deciding when traffic management is “needed”.

The current framework also does not apply yet to wireless. The CRTC is promising a separate ruling on wireless. This concept concerns us. If you believe in a principles-based approach to policy, it confuses us how exactly the carrier’s particular choice of last-mile technology should have bearing on that.

Remember that the end game for true innovation in Canada will be the day we can all access fat pipes with a level playing field for voice, video, data and any other service across those pipes whether they be wired, wireless or any combination.

The real problem for now that we consumers want it both ways. We enjoy our convenient cable and dsl broadband, infrastructure which is in fact heavily cross-subsidized by the economies of scale and scope of the digital tv, home phone, video on demand etc. services that your carrier delivers through that same last mile connection.

What we want is our cheap, low-up-front-cost connection to be super fat and completely open without having to watch all those stupid adds on regular tv, or pay the ridiculous cable charges or inflated home-phone fees.

There’s only a few ways we can think of around that dilemma.

a) Either someone goes out and builds a net-new fibre to the home/office at an epic scale (with either public or private investment or both, and note that some cities/municipalities have acheived this sometimes with spectacular success). We’ll defer to Mark Surman on this one (Director of the Mozilla Foundation) who told us once “listen, if you really love the net don’t protest about it, if you want the net to be awesome, don’t expect/demand/ask everyone else to make the net awesome for you, go make it awesome yourself!”

b) We learn to suck it up and pay the full cost of open connectivity infrastructure in exchange for the benefits it brings us (Think a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per home for fibre depending on density). Think of it as part of the capital value of realestate, after homeowners and landlords pay full freight for furnaces, roofing, water heaters etc. internet is just another.

c) Live with our status quo. The CRTC’s new framework is reasonable, if it can be enforced. Increased service transparency may yield more aggressive competition on consistency of service speed and quality. We shall see.

Toronto WirelessNorth.ca readers may want to check out (tonight):

An open forum for Toronto’s tech/web/media communities hosted by:

Matt Thompson, SavetheInternet.com and SaveOurNet.ca
Steve Anderson, SaveOurNet.ca and The Campaign for Democratic Media
Mark Kuznicki, Remarkk.com, Open Community Evangelist, TorCamp

Date/Time: Tuesday, June 24th, 6:00pm
Location: Fionn MacCool’s, 181 University Avenue @ Adelaide, Toronto
Snacks will be provided, cash bar
Your donation/sponsorship to help cover costs can be made by purchasing special tickets above.

Canada’s digital future is at a crossroads, and our community has an historic opportunity to help protect and shape that future for the next generation.

Bell Canada’s bandwidth throttling of third party ISPs has thrust the political battle over Net Neutrality and related issues, which have raged for some time in the United States, onto the front-page in Canada. The stakes are high. Canada’s digital future must be shaped by citizens, entrepreneurs, Internet innovators and the free market….

This forum will be introduced by Matt Thompson, campaign strategist for SavetheInternet.com and co-founder of the new Canadian coalition SaveOurNet.ca. Matt will sketch out the two opposing visions and plans for the future of Canada’s Internet and innovation economy… He’ll also brief us on recent victories for the U.S. Net Neutrality campaign, and what they may mean for Canada.

Also on hand will be SaveOurNet.ca co-founder Steve Anderson, to report on the trajectory of Saving Our Net in Canada, his recent meetings with industry and public interest groups and highlight the newest additions to the SaveOurNet.ca Coalition.

Mark Kuznicki will serve as moderator and facilitate a town hall-style conversation on a number of key questions.

Digital access, ICT competitiveness and net neutrality encompass some big issues that potentially everyone in Canada. Metrics show that Canada is slipping behind other OECD countries in ICT competitiveness. Meanwhile, all mainstream media formats are shifting rapidly to digital formats. Important decisions made now will affect to what extent you favorite wired or wireless network operators will also be able to legally manage, throttle or otherwise limit competition for all the content and applications that flow on “their” networks.

The potential problems are clear, however, the solutions and prudence of specific proposed solutions (like manadated net neutrality) are amply debatable.

WirelessNorth.ca encourages folks from any side of the issues to come out and learn, discuss and debate Canada’s networked future. See you there.

UPDATE: facebook event page
Facebook group for future events in your area.

It’s been a busy week in debate for net neutrality and network completion.

# First the other shoe dropped as Bell Canada (pictured left in this undated file photo) revealed the second piece of a newly aggressive strategy to wipe-out local broadband competition (from their own wholesale customers). Not a week after Bell started throttling independent ISPs, Bell petitioned the courts to scrap CRTC requirements that require them to wholesale their DSL network to other providers. [CBC coverage]

# The Canadian Association of Internet Providers meanwhile have filed have filed a cease and desist claim against Bell’s throttling practices which will force the CRTC to address the network neutrality issue. Michael Geist has an excellent coverage of the story, which he calls “the most significant legal development in the Canadian net neutrality debate yet “. Go read Michael’s post. Should they win this case it may have spillover impact on how the likes of Bell and Rogers are forced to treat customers, and packets on their own networks.

# At issue for the indie ISPs and net neutrality advocates is whether or not carriers have the right to open and monitor the internet traffic of Canadians and block or degrade any communications they, the carriers, may not like. Though often cloaked as such, this is not an issue about piracy or bittorrent, or about network management. Those in the know will tell you, “neutrality” in net neutrality is about advocating for adequate competition and a level playing field not just for access to the internet, but also for the content, services and messages that flow a cross it.

For more coverage on the saga this week, see Amber Mac’s latest vidcast:

The big controversy in the Canadian tech blogosphere this week is Bell’s move to trottle “P2P” traffic on third party ISPs. [Globe and mail: Bell irks ISPs with new throttling policy ]This is distressing a lot of savvy customers who were relying on indie ISPs like teksavvy as the last redoubt of unfettered access to the internet as the likes of Rogers and Bell have been increasingly and unapoligetically clamping down on any users attempting to actually make effective use of their connections as sold to them.

This trend isn’t just worrying for a few power users. Though Bell paints it as a P2P “piracy” issue but the reality is that it’s the legit content that matters. Today at ICE08, leaders of Canadian broadcasting, content creation and interactive industries are meeting to talk about the future of media. In theory that future is somehow in digital distribution. The key question is how will Canadian content producers distribute in Canada if the ISPs have turned off all the taps?

Businesses should be paying attention. Michael Geist adds:

the business community is left to wonder whether it will soon target business VPN traffic or broadcasters like the CBC for their streamed traffic. This represents a fundamental reshaping of the Internet in Canada as we pay (literally) for the dire lack of competition and independent ISPs gear up for likely legal challenges. Regardless of those outcomes, it will become increasingly apparent that the regulators and politicians can no longer remain silent. Nor should Canadians.

There’s nothing necessarily illegal about the telco/cableco’s policies (though the third party ISPs will be attempting to bring a suit). From Bell’s perspective it would seem a shame to have invested so much in hardware for deep packet inspection and not make the best of it right?

In the long run, it can’t be smart. Shaping and throttling access to the net is flirting is flirting with a larger evil than mere network optimizations and fighting some war on “piracy”. Maybe it’s smart business, but is it smart politics?

As Geist points out, Bell and Rogers throttling effects shows like CBC’s Next Great Prime Minister which is distributed free and legitimately over bittorrent. You couldn’t imagine a better poster child for taking a case to the CRTC. Nothing like interfering with public broadcasting, democratic participation and Canadian cultural content to attract the love of policy wonks.

Talk about hot buttons for regulatory intervention. Stir enough backlash, and this short term business strategy could have long reaching strategic implications.