Confirmed: TekSavvy traffic now being throttled by Bell

[Walter Dnes]

From DSLReports.

It originally started when Teksavvy customers complained on the Teksavy support forum about being throttled, despite Teksavvy's policy of not throttling. Teksavvy has arranged a meeting with Bell. Interesting to see what happens.

[hugh]

I have changed the thread title because this is purely speculation on a forum posted by several users.

It has not been confirmed by TekSavvy or Bell.

My thoughts, I am not surprised that Bell would not comment on its business dealings with 3rd party resellers but the fact that TekSavvy can't confirm this suggests that either: Bell is NOT throttling TekSavvy traffic or TekSavvy isn't very Tech savvy!

If official confirmation comes out, I will change the title to Bell Throttling TekSavvy traffic!

[supervij]

Good to know -- even if it IS just a rumour, for now. I've been considering switching to TekSavvy, as they have a less expensive internet package than what I'm currently getting with Rogers. But now I'll keep an eye on this space to help me decide. Thanks!

cheers,
supervij

[Kittys]

Well I have Teksavvy and Cogeco internet. Atleast at my house its NO rumour. Once 6pm comes around the speed drops right off on Teksavvy and doesn't come back till 2-3 am. I compare with Cogeco and their fine. Its been this way since Friday. But it seems to depend also on where you live and what BAS your connected to, so its not wide spread.

[hugh]

Kittys, thanks for the feedback.

If it is a fact then it will interesting to see what actions (if any) TekSavvy will take. My guess is there is little they can do.

[shabbs]

Will TechSavvy users have a case for "breach of service" if they were promised no caps, no throttling, no port blocking etc...?

[hugh]

If they promised no throttling and they are then I would certainly think so! I really find it hard to believe that TekSavvy had no clue this was happening why apparently many of their members did?

For examply, kittys suggests its been happening for some time. Don't you think TekSavvy would have investigated some time ago?

[shabbs]

I think Kittys indicated that it's only been like this since Friday. Teksavvy CEO Rocky Gaudrault has indicated in their support forums that Bell has implemented "load balancing" to "manage bandwidth demand" during peak congestion times. It seems to be affecting more than just P2P traffic. It will be interesting to see what comes from their meeting today and what Teksavvy tells it's customers.

[hugh]

Thanks Shabbs, didn't catch the Friday bit. If true, you have to wonder why Bell chose a long weekend to implement load balancing?

Wouldn't Sympatico customers also be affected or is Bell somehow segmenting TekSavvy traffic?

[shabbs]

I think this has been going on with Bell/Sympatico since Sept. 2007. This is the first time it's affected their partners though. Rogers, of course, has been doing it since 2005.

[hugh]

What I don't understand is if Bell has been supposedly been doing this since last year, why did it suddenly hit TekSavvy customers?

It's not like Bell has separate pipes for all its wholesales such as TekSavvy and Primus so how in the past was Bell able to "shape" their retail customers traffic but not their wholesale traffic?

[shabbs]

That's a good question but they've been able to do it. They must be able to differentiate between traffic from their partners (ie: TekSavvy) and their direct customers with Bell/Sympatico. It does all end up inside Bell's infrastructure in the end at some point, perhaps TekSavvy's popularity and increased user base has started to affect traffic across Bell's network at peak times. The key will be in the details that are part of the agreement between Bell and TekSavvy as to what exactly is provided and what Bell can do to the traffic before it's handed off to TekSavvy and others. I'm sure the lawyers are looking over the details right now.

[rgto]

Throttling of wholesale ISP providers has been acknowledged by Bell.

Post from Rocky (CEO of TekSavvy):

Ok... Here's the deal...

They're now openly acknowledging that they are rolling out a full throttling process. They plan to have things fully throttled by April 7th. All BT and P2P traffic will be affected.

They claim they are allowed to do so according to their Terms and Services under the Fair Usage Policy in the tariffed contracts... We'll be looking into this shortly.

The meeting was with Sales and Product Management. They will be preparing a formal letter before end of week.

In the meantime, we (many other ISPs) are going to prepare as well... I guess the high road is the path taken in this case.

Spread the word one and all as this topic needs to reach every level possible... There's now officially an issue and action must be taken by all if we're to rectify things.

[hugh]

So judging what some have said, the throttling occurs between 6pm and 3am. Is that correct?

I wonder if bitcaps will be implemented shortly thereafter. I'm surprised that the CEO at TekSavvy wounldn't have asked that since it seems like a no brainer considering they are throttling traffic

[rgto]

Various TekSavvy users have reported throttling occurring between 4pm and 2am. Bitcaps are controlled by TekSavvy - 200GB and unlimited accounts are available with TekSavvy. Bell shouldn't have a say on bitcaps for 3rd party providers, but you never know with Bell I guess...