Bell this week informed its wholesale internet customers that Bell will be moving wholesale internet traffic to new network facilities beginning in November 2011, facilities where bandwidth throttling practices will not be applied.

The announcement means Canadian internet users who are receiving internet service from wholesale providers - also known as third-party Internet access providers - will not have their internet connection speeds arbitrarily reduced. 

Wholesale or third-party Internet access (TPIA) providers are companies such as Primus Canada or Teksavvy who lease internet capacity from Bell and other telcos and resell Internet services to consumers.

In a letter to wholesalers, Bell says it was forced to implement bandwidth throttling in March 2008 in order to address network congestion due to the increased use of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing applications, particularly during peak periods.

Bell says that while congestion still exists, its network has become more robust over the last three and half years therefore the negative impact of P2P file sharing has been reduced.

On his blog site, University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist say s that although the impact of file sharing may have decreased over the last years, the real for the announcement may be an acknowledgement that Bell`s current throttling practices violate the CRTC's Internet traffic management guidelines.

Whatever the reason, the news is positive for customers who subscribe to DSL internet service with a a third party internet access provider.

In addition to announcing the throttling changes, Bell also announced a speed upgrade for DSL customers. The 5.0 Mbps service will have its maximum download speed increased to 6. Mbps and the upload speed increased to a maximum of 1 Mbps.

Bell says the roll-out for the speed increased will be conducted on a phased basis, starting October 20th and continuing until the end of the year.

Discuss the changes in Digital Home's Canadian Phone and Internet forum.