OTTAWA – The CRTC has sided with online gamers in their complaints against Rogers Communications’ network management policies.
The Commission’s Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer Andrea Rosen told Rogers in a letter on Friday that based on preliminary evidence, its Internet throttling practices are in breach of the net neutrality rules within the Telecommunications Act. It also gave the company two weeks to either dispute the evidence or provide a plan to come into compliance with the Act.
“Based on the preliminary results of our ongoing investigation, Commission staff is of the belief that Rogers Communications Inc. applies a technical ITMP to unidentified traffic using default peer-to-peer (“P2P”) ports”, the letter reads. “On the basis of our evidence to date, any traffic from an unidentified time-sensitive application making use of P2P ports will be throttled resulting in noticeable degradation of such traffic.”
The Canadian Gamers Organization have complained for months that Rogers’ throttling of peer-to-peer traffic is a major impediment to online game playing, especially World of Warcraft, as Cartt.ca has reported.
While the Commission has no power to level administrative monetary penalties or other fines, Rosen’s letter said that Rogers’ failure to provide “a meaningful rebuttal or an effective plan will result in my recommendation to Commissioners to hold a show-cause hearing”. Rogers’ response is due by February 3 at 12:00 pm.
Rogers did not respond to Cartt.ca's request for a comment by press time.
– Lesley Hunter
