In Canada, the regulator agency over communications and internet services is the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). In a recent decision, the CRTC has rules that internet throttling is permissible:

“Bell Canada Inc. is not breaking any laws by slowing internet speeds and will be allowed to continue throttling its customers, the CRTC has ruled.

The phone company, Canada’s biggest internet service provider with two million high-speed customers, has shown that it needs to be able to manage its network in order to prevent congestion, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said in a decision released Thursday.”

link: CRTC allows Bell to continue internet throttling

Some internet users will dismiss this as an issue that does not concern them because they are not heavy users of their internet service. However, the one of the central issues of this management of services is whether the internet service provider (ISP) should act as “gatekeepers” of online services. One of the salient arguments is that the ISP should not be dictating how a customer uses the internet.

From the perspective of the service provider, it is a matter of managing and providing adequate service. It could be argued that as more demand is placed on the system that improvements need to keep pace with demand. That systems development, however, would be costly and it appears that regulating services is a more cost efficient way to handle demand. The concern is that being the ‘gatekeepers’ of services is an open ended policy with greater possible regulations on every internet user.

Catherine Forsythe