GATINEAU and TORONTO – “Let me repeat that. We do not traffic shape downstream traffic,” said Rogers Communications senior vice-president, regulatory, Ken Englehart, told Cartt.ca on Monday.
Englehart was responding to a complaint letter sent to Rogers from the CRTC over the company’s network traffic management practices. The Commission cited a few complaint filed by Rogers customers over recent changes made by the company to its traffic management practices that affect the downstream flow – and that the company was not complying with the Commission’s disclosure requirements when it comes to ITMP (Internet traffic management policies).
The complainant said Rogers did not give 30 days notice on recent changes to its ITMPs nor does the information on the company’s web site properly educate customers on what might be happening.
Englehart noted that a recent software upgrade that better manages upstream traffic may be affecting the downstream for some customers.
“The issue seems to be that some peer-to-peer applications will affect your downstream based on a number of factors, including the upstream speed so indirectly, us traffic-shaping upstream could affect the customers’ experience with downstream,” he said. “But we explained this many times and in great detail at the traffic management hearing. We explained this to the CRTC so they know all about it.”
However, “they seem to be saying in their letter that we should explain on our web site that shaping the upstream can affect the downstream. But why are they only saying it now – and why are they only saying it for Rogers?
“We have already explained this to the Commission. I don’t really understand the letter,” added Englehart. “Our disclosure is very explicit on our web site and we have had it there for over a year. We amended it to conform with what the CRTC wanted so it’s strange that they’re now saying it needs more work given that we did it in consultation with them.”
The new ITMPs do not affect streaming or surfing, just some P2P applications. “Some of the peer to peer applications have a kind of golden rule that if you’re uploading to people at certain speeds, then it will download to you at that certain speed,” explains Englehart. “It has nothing to do with the content, or with us.
“I think what’s happened is when we upgraded our traffic shaping software in the summer, some people who weren’t caught by the software before are now caught so their upstream is shaped and they’re seeing their downstream slowed as a result and they’ve drawn the erroneous conclusion that Rogers is shaping downstream traffic, which is just not true,” added Englehart, who believes some minor changes to Rogers’ FAQ section might be in order.
“My thinking is that we will update our FAQs to explain the relationship between upstream and downstream because I think it’s an important consideration that is a good thing to tell our customers about.”
– Greg O’Brien
