Dear Editor,
Well, I’m gobsmacked!
The Globe and Mail recently (29 November/07) reported that BitTorrent users were facing an engineered traffic jam by intervening ISPs. Geez, I thought that the Internet couldn’t be regulated?
But apparently it can be.
And by ISP technicians "in Canada and the United States (that) restrict the flow of certain traffic on their networks".
Oh, and I guess by rogue regimes, political cabals and thug dictators in Burma, Syria, Pakistan – and yup, China.
Moreover, ask Canadians to keyboard in "google.com" just to see what happens. Looks like somebody there is also "traffic shaping" for commercial reasons.
Maybe it’s time for the CRTC to indulge a very public and open re-think of the Internet.
Obviously the Internet is and can be regulated.
The multi-gazillion dollar question is – by whom?
And, since Industry Minister Jim Prentice asserted this week that spectrum is owned by the public – to what end?
Sincerely,
Bill Roberts
President and CEO
S-VOX and VisionTV
