UBB

[Yroc]

I am hoping to hear from freephoneline.ca brass and FPL users in relation to UBB.

The measures being sanctioned by the CRTC are meant to keep your TV and your phone service with Bell and Rogers making sure that innovative ideas like FPL die a slow death. Steve and others, please comment.

You can also take action and read about it @ http://www.antiubb.com/ and @ http://www.facebook.com/openmedia.ca

[FONGO_steve]

I'll break down UBB a little further for those readers who may not be familiar with the term.

Bell Canada proposed to the CRTC that all wholesale providers of their internet services be limited to X amount of bandwidth per customer, per month. Any overage in that bandwidth, and the incumbent would be charged a pre-determined overage fee per gigabyte. Right now, there's still a lot of talk going on as to what exactly these fees will be, and what exactly the finalized bandwidth limits will be. I won't comment on any of that until the CRTC has approved or denied the final requests of Bell Canada.

Since the CRTC did approve Bell's request as a whole, this will be starting to take place around March 1, 2011.

Unfortunately since the CRTC did approve this request, this will affect all DSL providers that wholesale Bell DSL loops, including freephoneline. We are still having several meetings surrounding how we as a company will implement this in order to ensure we can still provide the most feature-rich internet service to our customers as we can. Once more details are confirmed by the CRTC, and we have a clear direction on how this will alter current internet service offerings, we will post a public message for our users.

One thing worth noting though; Fibernetics, the company we are owned by, does have DSLAMs setup in several regions where we can provide our own DSL lines, free of the Bell wholesale limitations. As we continue to grow the deployment of our network, this will give us a strong edge when it comes to being able to provide faster services and much higher bandwidth limits to our users. This network will be used by all of our services - freephoneline included (for customers in qualifying locations) With Bell clamping down so tightly on wholesalers, the continued growth of independent networks like ours could start to provide a brighter future for broadband in Canada.

When more details about our UBB changes come available, I will ensure they are promptly posted as a forum announcement.

[Ice]

I'm not going to get so much into the debate about whether or not it's a good idea or not, but I'll comment/suggest about Freephoneline + DSL service.

Considering the relative low amounts of bandwidth and time-sensitivity of data packets for VoIP/freephoneline... does Fibernetics/Freephonline have any intention, or already prioritize VoIP traffic (QoS)?

[FONGO_steve]

Ice, to answer your question, freephoneline itself currently doesn't do any form of packet prioritization but I've put this on my list of things I'd certainly like to bring up with the team when the time permits!

Fibernetics VOIP is nothing like freephoneline VOIP and is extremely robust and redundant for business purposes. They do have VOIP packet priority and traffic shaping to ensure uninterrupted voice service at all times. However, I won't get into details on that system here - if anyone is interested for their business, I can get the appropriate people in touch with you.


This just in:
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2011 ... mezei.html

[Ice]

That's great to know... I don't know what the backend looks like, but as your client lists grow (yay!) things may or (may not) get less efficient that may (or not) affect VoIP traffic.

I can't argue against Bell's premise for not allowing unlimited bandwidth because of abuse/etc... but I don't like how they went about it and what they're literally trying to do.

[igracgq]

Everyone, please sign the petition at:

http://www.stopthemeter.ca or http://openmedia.ca/meter

It only takes 10 seconds, so please visit the site and pass it on to everyone else you might know

[callopsitte_himself]

I also suggest you fax your federal MPP. It can just be a quick 1 page fax with "I'm against UBB and I'll remember your government action about this issue at the next elections".

Free fax page: http://faxzero.com/ You can send a .DOC or .PDF or write in the text box on the page.

Finding your MPP fax number: http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParl ... Language=E

Or email:

Tony Clement, Minister of Industry: minister.industry@ic.gc.ca
and
Prime Minister Harper: Harper.S@parl.gc.ca
and your MPP

Small explanation here that tells a lot in few words how we're getting screwed: http://www.digitalhome.ca/2011/01/usage ... an-you-do/

[igracgq]

Excellent post Callopsitte !!!

[callopsitte_himself]

PM Harper has just announced that he asked for a revision on the CRTC's decision to impose UBB on internet. So we bought some time. That means it could still be implemented. So it's not time to stop putting pressure. How about we all send him, Minister Clement and our MPP a fax and an email a week until it is completely overruled? See 1st post for addresses, fax numbers, emails and sending a free fax.

Also use your Facebook to post the links above.

[laurent]

This CRTC failure couldn't have come at a better time. Every politician worth their salt will now jump on the opportunity to defend poor Canadian citizens. But no, there are no elections coming, they do it just for us because we're awesome.

Cynicism aside, with all the politicians, and our prime minister, being vocal about this issue, there's no way it'll stay like that.

Perhaps it'll be "fixed" in a way that doesn't really do much, but something will be done...

Please note that the petition is simplified at this address: http://stopthemeter.ca/ because of the overwhelming traffic on the server, they had to cut everything but this page.