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Bell Canada and Bell Aliant to Cease Throttling in March 2012

TMCnews Featured Article


December 28, 2011

Bell Canada and Bell Aliant to Cease Throttling in March 2012

By Rajani Baburajan, TMCnet Contributor


Bell Canada (News - Alert) and Bell Aliant, sister telcos, announced they will cease the practice of slowing download and upload speeds of customers using peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications, also known as “bandwidth throttling” with effect from March 1, 2012.


Throttling has been used on both networks since 2008 at peak times (4:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.). The decision was prompted by the relative proportion of traffic accounted for by P2P declining due to the increasing popularity of streamed video and other traffic, according to company officials.

The move to stop throttling was conveyed through a letter to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The change applies to Bell retail Internet package users and end-users of Bell’s wholesale ISP clients.

Bell Canada has already begun implementing the changes. From November, it is no longer using equipment to slow down P2P traffic on “newer” sections of its network, company officials said.

The decision to stop throttling came just after the CRTC published its new wholesale Internet access billing framework – the “approved capacity model” – applicable where a network provider proposes to charge ISPs separately for data usage in the residential segment.

According to Bell Canada, the framework reduces requirements for technology-based traffic-shaping measures, as the model acts instead as an economic incentive for managing Internet traffic.  

Following the changes, Bell Canada and MTS (News - Alert) Allstream will alter their wholesale billing models to the new framework.

Meanwhile, other major fixed network operators including Bell Aliant, Telus Communications, Shaw Communications (News - Alert) and SaskTel will be permitted by the CRTC to continue to charge their wholesale residential ISP customers using their existing flat rate models, which provide for unlimited internet bandwidth usage, company officials said.

In a related announcement in the industry, Unitas Global, a provider of managed IT infrastructure outsourcing services, announced that Giglinx has selected Unitas to provide comprehensive managed services to its customers. A wholesale connectivity and colocation services company, Giglinx helps companies secure wholesale Layer 1 and 2 connectivity across the globe.


Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Carrie Schmelkin







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