It doesn't happen much in the US, where consumers are accustomed to one monthly payment covering access to every service on the 'Net without degradation. ISPs therefore deploy DPI gear at their peril, as Comcast found out when it begin forging TCP reset packets to slow BitTorrent uploads. Consumer reaction came quickly, and FCC oversight soon followed.
The same thing happened with NebuAd, the company that hoped to monitor ISP networks to deliver targeted advertising to end-users based on their surfing habits. After outrage and congressional involvement, the company lost its CEO and dropped the controversial approach.
That is encouraging news for the US.
The Canadian situation is more
perplexing.
Canadian law professor Michael Geist, commenting on this morning's decision, said that it was important to look at the bigger picture. \"In the span of 13 months, there has been a major CRTC case, a private member's bill on net neutrality, a rally on Parliament Hill, the emergence of BitTorrent as distribution tool for broadcast content, a more vocal
business community supporting net neutrality, and a gradual shift of this issue into the political mainstream...\" he wrote. \"In other words, today's CRTC decision is not the final word on net neutrality in Canada, but rather the first word on it.\"
CRTC is moving rapidly with the proceeding, and all final reply comments are due by the end of April. A public hearing is set for July 6 in Gatineau, Quebec, after which the CRTC will presumably rule on the question of just what sorts of bandwidth throttling measures Canadian ISPs will be allowed to take.
So that's when the next debate in Canada starts.
This little snippet might be useful to vebk
And speaking of transparency, most of the important information in the filings was provided on a \"confidential\" basis and is not currently available to anyone but CRTC staff. This includes link utilization thresholds, detailed traffic growth numbers, and (most) vendors of the DPI gear involved in the throttling.
Airtel & co are not likely to part with similar info lightly.