Abstract: "The net neutrality rally is intended to bring together politicians, labour unions, consumer groups and Internet activists, with protesters being bused in from Toronto, Montreal and Chatham, Ont. The protest centers around "throttling" Internet traffic."
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Canadian Net Neutrality Rally To Gather in Ottawa
2008/05/26
by Power of Citizen Journalism
The organizers anticipate there will be hundreds of protesters gathering on Parliament Hill today in an effort to encourage the Canadian Government to keep the Internet free from interference by service providers.
The net neutrality rally will bring together politicians, labour unions, consumer groups and Internet activists. The protesters are being bused in various cities including Chatham, Ont., the home base of the rally organizer, TekSavvy Solutions Inc.
"We're expecting between 300 and 500 [protesters], and if it's any more than that, we'll consider it an amazing success," said Rocky Gaudrault, chief executive officer of TekSavvy, an ISP with about 35,000 customers.
The concerns behind the rally are the actions of big ISPs such as Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., who have been slowing down the internet speeds of customers using certain applications, such as peer-to-peer software used for file sharing.
Bell and Rogers are Canada's two largest ISPs, and along with other companies, such as Videotron Ltee and Cogeco Inc., are saying they need to slow such traffic down or "throttle" it.
Why? They claim that a small percentage of customers are abusing these peer-to-peer applications and causing network congestion, thus affecting the speeds of the majority.
The rally supporters are going to urge Industry Minister Jim Prentice and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to enact rules that prevent ISPs from discriminating between different types of traffic, and to force more transparency from the providers.
In addition, they are asking that ISPs be forced to provide the speeds they are offering and discontinue their throttling practices.
Groups scheduled to take part in the rally include:
• The National Union of Public and General Employees.
• The Canadian Union of Public Employees.
• The Campaign for Democratic Media.
• The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
• The Council of Canadians.
The Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) will represent the smaller ISPs, including TekSavvy. TekSavvy rents portions of Bell's network in order to provide customers with access, will be represented by CAIP recently complained to the CRTC that Bell is being anti-competitive by expanding its throttling practices to its members, and asked for an emergency cease-and-desist order.
On May 14, the regulator declined to issue the order, however, the next day opened up the larger issue for debate and expects to make a ruling on ISP throttling practices by the fall.
The rally kick-off time is 11:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday.