Rogers follows Bell in ending Internet throttling

The CRTC recently said Rogers Communications might be breaking the law by slowing down some video games to ease Internet congestion. I wrote about the issue here.

After being given a deadline to respond, Rogers has promised to end Internet throttling for all its customers by the end of this year. Bell Canada has said it will stop the practice next month.

"Over the past two years, we've invested $1 billion in our networks to deliver the best possible Internet service for our customers, including more speed, reliability and capacity," spokeswoman Leigh-Ann Popek said Friday.

"We have historically managed peer-to-peer traffic uploads. However, new technologies and ongoing investments in network capacity will allow us to begin phasing out that policy starting in March 2012."

Rogers will switch off the policy in stages and monitor the change closely to make sure customers have the speed and reliability they expected.

Open Media, a consumer group that promotes Internet access, praised the telecom regulator for pushing Rogers to change its policy.

"We hope this is a strong reminder to all Internet service providers that Canadians will stand up for the open Internet when pushed," said executive director Steve Anderson.

The CRTC adopted new rules in 2009 to allow Internet providers to manage traffic in some cases as long as they disclosed it to customers. However, there was no way to enforce the rules except for consumer complaints.

The Canadian Gamers Organization compiled evidence to show that Rogers was discriminating against some video games, such as World of Warcraft. This was against its stated policy of restricting file sharing with movies and TV shows.

The CRTC did its own tests and confirmed the gamers' results, forcing Rogers to stop restricting access to online services.

The principle at stake is known as Net Neutrality. You can find explanations here and here.

Canada is a global contender in broadband Internet performance when compared to 32 countries in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to a consultant's report released Feb. 2.

"The statistics are particularly meaningful when Canada's large geographical land mass and sparse population are taken into consideration," Lemay-Yates Associates said.

"Canada has the best performance with respect to broadband speeds and penetration when compared to countries with similar very large geography, notably the United States and Australia."

As for costs, Canada ranks seventh among 32 countries in having the lowest average monthly Internet subscription fees, the report said.

Let's hope our costs stay low and our speeds stay high. The decisions of two big Internet providers to stop throttling is a step in achieving that balance.

Second thoughts: I should have said that the Lemay-Yates Associates report, cited above, was sponsored by Rogers. The information was in the Rogers news release and I missed it.

Open Media has criticized the Lemay-Yates report, since it didn't conform to what other reports have said about Internet prices and speeds in Canada. Here's a link to the group's Feb. 6 release.

Rogers spokeswoman Leigh-Ann Popek said the Lemay-Yates report received positive attention because it used actual data from 52 million end user speed tests. This better reflects the speeds consumers encounter in their own home.

"Previous international studies rely on advertised speeds from Internet service providers to determine rankings, even though in other countries, the actual speeds customers get are often far below advertised speeds," she explained.