Recent data shows that Canadian cable ISP Rogers is the worst ISP tracked by MLabs when it comes to meddling with, throttling, or otherwise restricting user traffic. As Canadian network neutrality complaints
rise sharply after the nation imposed new neutrality laws, Rogers is busily responsible for more than half of them -- as the company continues to use network management platforms that impact legitimate traffic, applications and games (just
ask our users).
This is something that has been going on for at least five years, and is well documented by our regular readers, several of whom have been instrumental in complaints to the Canadian government. The CRTC finally
sent Rogers to their enforcement division last October after years of complaints about the throttling of legitimate applications and games like World of Warcraft. Now the CRTC has
sent Rogers a letter officially stating the ISP is violating the rules and has until February 3 to respond:
Based on the preliminary results of our ongoing investigation, Commission staff is of the belief that Rogers Communications Inc. (“Rogers”) applies a technical ITMP to unidentified traffic using default peer-to-peer (“P2P”) ports. On the basis of our evidence to date, any traffic from an unidentified time-sensitive application making use of P2P ports will be throttled resulting in noticeable degradation of such traffic. Enclosed please find a summary of our evidence.
...Within two weeks, I look forward to you either presenting us with a rebuttal of our evidence or providing us with a plan to come into compliance with the Act. Failure to provide a meaningful rebuttal or an effective plan will result in my recommendation to Commissioners to hold a show-cause hearing. I look forward to your response by 12:00 pm, February 3, 2012.
The CRTC's enforcement of their own rules has been somewhat glacial, and the CRTC ruling comes just after current agency boss Konrad von Finckenstein
left his post. If the CRTC had hoped that "naming and shaming" ISPs would force compliance -- that certainly hasn't yet worked with Rogers. Despite ample documentation of their dysfunctional throttling practices, Rogers
issued a statement claiming the company was "surprised" by the CRTC's ruling. Rogers now has to present evidence and counterclaims or face hearings before the CRTC (a prospect that's clearly not terrifying Rogers) -- after which they
might be subject to a small fine.
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