Bell Canada is in some hot water over arbitrarily, and without notification, started using throttling and traffic shaping to limit the congestion on the internets that they perceived. This congestion, they contend, is caused by P2P file sharing. The catch is that since Bell has a virtual monopoly over the entire phone network in much of Canada, the restrictions they put in place were also arbitrarily placed on all DSL subscribers connected to the Bell network, even people subscribed to a DSL provider other than Bell.

Naturally, people were not happy, including the CRTC. They have asked Bell, politely, for the data used to make this one-sided decision. Bell has since handed over the information and our buddies over at Ars Technica have gotten their hands on it. It doesn't look good for bell. Go over and read the article, if you are so inclined. It's pretty good. There's charts and everything.

"While these numbers may seem low to the average layperson," says the letter, "they are significant and network traffic engineers such that it is important to consider the number of congested links in the proper context."

I am a network admin, and looking at the numbers doesn't make me want to curl up in the fetal position. While they aren't amazing, it seems that the backbone is ticking away pretty darned good. The DSLAMS aren't quite so nice, but that it more of a problem of over-subscribing than anything.

Bell, where's the problem here?

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