News

The battle between Bell Canada and a consortium of independent Internet service providers over how online traffic is allowed to flow will come to a head Thursday when the country's telecom regulator releases a decision which could have lasting implications on how millions of Canadians access the Web.

Thursday morning the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will issue its decision on a complaint filed by the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) over the way that Bell "shapes" or "throttles" certain types of Internet traffic.

CAIP — an industry group consisting of independent Internet service providers (ISPs) — complained to the CRTC in April that Bell was slowing certain traffic on the network space it was leasing to them.

Bell contends that it needs to manage or "shape" certain types of Internet traffic to ensure that a relatively small number of users employing peer-to-peer downloading programs that consume large amounts of bandwidth aren't bogging down the network for regular users.

CAIP alleges that Bell is illegally managing their subscribers' traffic and choking out competition. Supporters of CAIP say that Bell's practices fly in the face of the unwritten rule of net neutrality, which states that all Internet traffic be treated equally and free of network management practices.

Earlier this summer, the head of the CRTC said the government may need to step in to establish laws surrounding "traffic shaping" or risk further disagreements.

"The CAIP complaint is really only the tip of the iceberg," CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told a telecom conference in June. "Sooner or later - hopefully later - this is going to evolve into a major consultation ... It seems to be inevitable."

Rogers Communications Inc. has faced similar criticism in the past for its own traffic shaping policies, which it argues are necessary to prevent network congestion.