Canada’sbroadcast regulator, the CRTC, is asking for another round of publicinput regarding Canadian ISPs and their traffic management practices,also known as bandwidth throttling. The official hearing is scheduled for July 6 in Gatineau Quebec, but online consultation to the http://isppractices.econsultation.ca site will close at midnight EST on April 30, 2009.
The online CRTC consulation focuses on four specific topics ofdiscussion: the impact of throttling on user experience andinnovation, the different approaches to traffic management, the rolethe CRTC should take regarding this issue, and disclosure requirementsof mamagement practices by ISPs.
In an interesting sidenote to all this, Techdirt is now reportingthat Bell Canada, one of the largests providers of wholesale Internetconnections to the smaller ISPs, is currently considering a change inthe way it bills other client ISPs for their Internet connections -from a flat-rate per user charge, towards a usage-based model. Whichcould put some pressure on these ISPs to adapt some of their owntraffic monitoring measures, or at the very least become less vocalabout Bell’s own traffic management practices.
