Last week’s posts [here and here] that looked at traffic management on Bell’s wholesale DSL services generated a record amount of traffic for this website, a lot of comments – attached to my blog postings, as well as on DSL Reports and Michael Geist’s blog – and I found out all sorts of new adjectives to be applied to my CV. When I read the forum on DSL Reports, I was struck by the amount of misunderstanding and misinformation that is being circulated by its contributors.

I note the press release from the NDP’s Charlie Angus and Michael Geist’s recent reference to a piece from the CEO of Glance Networks.

Let me provide you with a link to a March 25 paper written to address both wireless and conventional net neutrality. It is an interesting read to help maintain some balance.

As certain parties rush to introduce legislation and new regulations to enforce net neutrality, the paper points out:

The Department of Justice concluded in September 2006 that because of significant oversimplifications, “proponents of ‘net neutrality’ regulation do not agree on a definition of what conduct should be prohibited, nor what networks would be regulated, or even the extent to which pieces of the Internet need to be regulated.”

I’m certain that we’ll get back to net neutrality before The Canadian Telecom Summit in June. Still, I’ll again note that the Summit will host what should be an interesting discussion of the issue at Canada’s preeminent gathering of telecom industry stakeholders. Have you booked your place yet?

As Jed Bartlett used to say in The West Wing so often, “What’s Next?”

It will be worthwhile to check back here at the end of the day. I plan to provide a summary of the Industry Canada list of the qualified bidders in the AWS spectrum auction. And, I’ll have some comments on new bandwidth caps being introduced on some of the unlimited internet plans.

Sasktel CEO Robert Watson was in Toronto yesterday with members of his team, providing a number of analysts with an update on the activities of the largest crown-owned ILEC in Canada.

It is somewhat notable in that Sasktel provides these outreach sessions, despite the lack of disclosure requirements imposed by the equity markets.

Much of the information was of the nature of helpful background and setting a context for our future analysis.

A few factoids stood out.

• High speed now available to 86% of the population.
• All communities with at least 200 people and many with more than 100 people have either DSL or wireless internet service.

Think about what these mean taken together: 14% of Saskatchewan’s population must be in these extremely small communities of less than 200 people.

Sasktel continues to be a world leader in IPTV, deploying technology in 9 Saskatchewan communities allowing 2 HDTV sets in a household. Sasktel has its Max TV service in more than a quarter of the homes it passes.

On June 12, Sasktel will celebrate 100 years of operation in the province. Ahead by a century.

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Sasktel

The CRTC has given approval to the acquisition of BCE by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (et al), subject to some conditions that do not appear to be onerous, subject to Teachers’ US partners being willing to be subservient to the Canadians.

Of significance is the guidance for structuring foreign ownership that this CRTC decision provides. The CRTC appears to have affirmed that the bar requires control by Canadians. Some had felt that simply being not controlled by non-Canadians was sufficient. Section 3(1) of The Broadcast Act states a positive requirement for ownership and control by Canadians. Contrast this with 16(3) of The Telecom Act, that uses a double negative: not controlled by non-Canadians.

This discussion, defining how Canadian do you have to be to pass scrutiny of foreign ownership, is likely to be helpful as alliances solidify for the AWS spectrum auction.

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Bell, Teachers, AWS

There is a theme in the comments on yesterday’s posting (and in the continued postings and comments on Michael Geist’s blog) that calls into question Bell adhering to its tariffs.

I have not seen anyone refer to the General Terms of Service (Item 10), which apply to all services purchased under tariff. It appears to me that Article 8 (Restrictions on Use of Service) seems pretty clear about Bell’s right to manage traffic loads, even those of resellers:

8.3 Customers are prohibited from using Bell Canada’s services or permitting them to be used so as to prevent a fair and proportionate use by others. For this purpose, Bell Canada may limit use of its services as necessary. In the case of any party line customer who unduly interferes with the use of any other service on the same line, Bell Canada may require the customer to obtain a higher grade of service, where facilities are available.

The growth in on-line gaming (from our kids Xbox or other systems) is putting some pretty strenuous demands on residential networks. Gaming isn’t as tolerant of latency as torrents or other large file transfers.

Our kids want responsiveness from their joy sticks. That would seem to be a factor in the reports that the network management seems to be time of day related to when the kids are out of school.

We’ll be looking at net neutrality at a special session at The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit in June.

Is 2008 the year that broadband internet using fixed wireless hits its stride in Canada?

Service providers, technology developers, government officials and industry analysts (including yours truly) will try to provide answers to that question at “WiMAX – Canada Sets its Sights”, a one-day conference presented by CWTA on May 22, 2008 at the Renaissance Hotel – Toronto Airport.

Preliminary program information and a call for speakers can be found at the CWTA website.

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CWTA, WiMax