On his blog, Bill St. Arnaud asks “Will bandwidth caps be the next battle for Network Neutrality”? His piece opens with some commentary:

Increasingly we are seeing carriers look to impose bandwidth caps and a variety of tiered services for Internet usage. Although I think some sort of bandwidth cap may be necessary for egregious users, there [sic] proliferation and adoption by cablecos and telco flies in the face of the fact that growth of Internet traffic is slowing down substantially as evidenced by the data provided by Andrew Olydzko. The cablecos and telcos seem to be the only industry that intentionally punishes their biggest customers when given declining growth rates they should be rewarding them. One suspects other motives may be at play

If you actually look at the data from Andrew Olydzko [ppt, 299 KB], you’ll see that the “slowing down substantially” refers to only 50-60%! That is 50-60% growth on a huge base and enormous penetration rate, meaning that in absolute terms, we still are seeing significant growth.

Of course, this is nothing (on a percentage basis) compared to wireless growth of 500% but you need to look beyond the percentages at the real numbers.

As to Bill’s comment that “cablecos and telcos seem to be the only industry that intentionally punishes their biggest customers when given declining growth rates”, I can’t figure out what he is talking about. Every service I pay for charges me more when I use more. Electricity, water, gasoline. Even car leases charge extra if you exceed the predicted mileage.

If you want to look at these kinds of issues in depth, you need to attend The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit.

We have a session called Building Broadband on June 15, featuring real network operators, like the presidents of Sasktel, Cogeco Data Services and Barrett Xplore, suppliers like Motorola as well as the author of Homes with Tails. On June 16, we have a panel looking at Net Neutrality featuring Skype, Rogers and Sandvine. Have you registered yet?

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net neutrality, Canadian Telecom Summit

Following up on Monday’s posting about building broadband networks, I noticed Verizon’s comments to the US government about the American broadband stimulus bill speaks in similar terms to what I have been suggesting.

Verizon observed that 90 percent of U.S. households already have access to broadband, and that of the households that have computers, 80 percent of them subscribe to broadband services.

Verizon is calling for the program to focus on extending broadband connections to unserved areas, and addressing demand-side factors that hamper growth, such as many households still lacking a computer.

Verizon took issue with those seeking to attach regulatory conditions to broadband funding:

In order to ensure that the recovery act’s broadband programs do not get bogged down in regulatory wrangling that would undermine quick job creation and economic stimulus, [the government] also should avoid imposing regulatory ‘strings’ or eligibility criteria that will deter participation or otherwise inhibit sustainable broadband investment and job creation.

In other words, keep net neutrality restrictions off this program. Recall that last month, we wrote about the kinds of strings that some wanted attached to funding.

We have a session called Building Broadband on June 15 at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit. On June 16, we have a panel looking at Net Neutrality. Have you registered yet?

The CRTC has been asking TELUS some tough questions about delays in service being provided to customers in its ILEC territory.

Apparently, the Commission has received a number of complaints regarding new installation requests for local telephone service that cannot be completed.

The complaints allege that in many cases, TCC is not providing local telephone service to home owners for periods exceeding many months. In some other cases, the complaints allege that TCC will not be providing telephone service to their location at all due to the high costs to overlay cable facilities.

On March 19, the CRTC wrote TELUS asking it for information about the number of people who have been unable to get phone service, even asking for a list of customer names and addresses.

The information was due to be filed on Friday of this week, but the CRTC appears to have granted an extension until May 4. We’ll be following this.

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TELUS

The word that President Obama is easing trade restrictions on Americans dealing with Cuba will have repercussions for Canada’s telecommunications carriers. The administration is going to license US carriers to build new links to the Island.

For at least 15 years, facilities operated by carriers in Canada have provided a gateway for Americans to place calls to families, since there are a very limited number of circuits currently available on direct links between the US and Cuba.

Wholesale rates to Cuba are about US$0.22 per minute (landline and cellular), which is about double the current rates to Haiti and around ten times the US$0.023 rates to Dominican Republic.

Which Canadian carriers have the greatest exposure to losing that traffic?

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Cuba

I drove to and from Montreal over the weekend and passed through a lot of rural territory that has been the subject of various rural broadband projects. For example, the Eastern Ontario Warden’s Caucus (EOWC) is looking at enhancing the broadband capabilities of its residents.

It seems to me that an important issue is broadband affordability – rural and urban. More than simply being concerned with connectivity, how do we make broadband affordable for all Canadians? We have technologies available that can reach every Canadian household and business, but can they afford to sign on?

We have a session called Building Broadband on June 15 at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit. Have you registered yet?

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EOWC, broadband, Canadian Telecom Summit