For the inaugural post at http://bizriver.com/ I decided to write about something that every Canadian should be aware of…Network Neutrality (Internet Neutrality or ‘Net Neutrality). It is the notion that Internet users have the right to determine what content they view and the applications they use to view it on the Internet. Seems pretty logical, but this basic freedom is being threatened by the Bif Telco companies…the very companies YOU use to access the Internet.
On October 31, 2007, Bell Sympatico, one of the largest ISPs in Canada, admitted to using traffic management systems to specifically target peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic. This, in effect, reduced the speed at which this type of data could transfer or blocks it entirely. A Sympatico manager later added, "…Bell is using Internet Traffic Management to ensure we deliver bandwidth fairly to our customers…".
On the surface, this may seem ok. Sympatico is trying to provide better service to it’s customers. No, my friends, look a little deeper. They are controlling how and what you are accessing on the Internet. It is no different than your telephone provider telling you who you can call and at what time you can call them, or your power company specifying what devices you can plug into the wall and if you use something different, it will not work properly. Doesn’t seem too benign now…
Why would these companies do this? Greed, my friends. Let’s say you are a company about to launch a new product. You could pay these ISPs large amounts of money to ensure your web pages load faster while your competition loads slower or not at all. The ISP collects money from these contracts, and they also continue to collect from YOU every month to access filtered content. This can not happen. I urge you to contact your local MP and tell them this is not acceptable. You can also visit http://www.neutrality.ca/ for more information and to sign their petition.
Update: Visit Will Pate’s 3 Easy Ways to Support Net Neutrality in Canada Tags: network neutrality, net neutrality, sympatico, bandwidth filtering
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