It's no secret that certain Internet service providers
have made a practice of 'throttling' broadband access--reducing the
bandwith available to heavy users, especially during periods. What's
often more challenging to figure out is which ISPs are doing this and
when. That's because the negative PR associated with throttling makes
many ISPs reluctant to disclose such activities.
Canadians,
however, now have more insight into which of its telcos throttle,
thanks to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications
Commission's (CRTC) recent hearings into this issue. According to Ars Technica,
a graduate student at the University of Victoria pored over the ISPs
submissions to the CRTC, extracted their throttling practices, and
combined them into a handy PDF. As
a journalist and a Canadian, I applaud this kind of transparency, as us
consumers should know exactly what we're paying for. Kudos.
