Rogers Ordered to Stop Throttling Games

[Andy Chalk]

Rogers Ordered to Stop Throttling Games

Canadian telecommunications giant Rogers has been ordered to stop throttling World of Warcraft and other online games.

It came to light back in March that Rogers Communications, one of the largest telecommunications companies in Canada, was World of Warcraft [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108792-Canadian-ISP-Admits-to-Throwing-Brakes-on-World-of-Warcraft] players. The company claimed that it was a mistake caused by issues between its "traffic management equipment" and the game which resulted in the MMO being misclassified as a peer-to-peer connection. Rogers said at the time that it was working on the issue and expected to have it resolved by June.

June came, June went, and while Rogers says that the World of Warcraft situation is all straightened out, the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission is concerned that the company's policies could cause problems with other online games and applications. Following an August complaint by the Canadian Gamers Organization about the possible throttling of Call of Duty: Black Ops [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Black-Ops-Xbox-360/dp/B003JVKHEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316362312&sr=8-1], the CRTC sent a letter to Rogers on September 16 stating that its policies and equipment "could potentially continue to misclassify time-sensitive traffic such as other online games." The letter gave the company until September 27 to present its plan to resolve the issue once and for all.

Rogers said in a statement that it is not aware of any problems with other games and thus intends to simply "table the process that we already have in place to deal with these issues." It also encouraged gamers who run into issues to contact the company so they can be investigated and fixed. "Gamers are some of our best customers," it said. "We want them to be satisfied customers."

Rogers and other large ISPs in Canada say they need to manage online traffic in order to address network congestion issues during peak usage hours, although the CRTC noted in its letter that any such management that results in "noticeable degradation" of time-sensitive traffic requires its prior approval. Under current policies, Rogers' traffic management system limits users to a maximum upload speed of 80 kilobits per second in peer-to-peer applications.

Sources: CBC [http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/CRTC+tells+Rogers+stop+slowing+down+speed+online+games/5413667/story.html]


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[FogHornG36]

STUPID! not all peer to peer connections are doing something illegal.

Also, i hate any telecommunications company that puts limits and throttles connections, thay act like they only have a limited number of bits and that they are guna run out unless they get more money.

 

[XT inc]

It's just one of the many things I hate about being ontario first on my shitlist is the LCBO and then rogers.

They know deep down, if they offered untrottled unlimited internet a lot of people would not be using their garbage cable packages. I think we pay like 40-50 bucks a month to get 60gbs of internet for the whole house and then it is like 2 bucks a gig after that.

I had to cancel netflix not just because they don't seem to be getting the licences to put up good shows, but when standard def is a gig an hour and they best these collaberators could come up was low def streaming. Our cable companies suck so bad their work around is to go lower def.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

80 kb/s?

what is this, AOL from 1994?

sweet jesus, one of the few times i'm glad i'm not in canada..

i feel very sorry for your lots

 

[Lilani]

It kicks in when exceeding 80 KBPS? Good Lord. What do they think this is, the 90s? Hell, you could probably run into that streaming one HD video on YouTube. How are things like Netflix and cloud/online gaming supposed to flourish when the ISPs are doing bullshit like this?

 

[fix-the-spade]

Worth noting Malygris, 80kb/sec is roughly equal to 10MB/sec, it's actually quite a lot of data to be transferring. I can't really see how BlOps or any shooter can use that much bandwidth even on a peer to peer network.

My mistake, got my megas and kilos mixed up, good thing I don't build rockets.

That's a pretty horrific upload rate, evidently they still live in 1997 and everyone's playing Netmech on dial up.

I miss netmech.

 

[intheweeds]

Seriously. As a Canadian who uses Rogers, I already pay a larger fee per month for my bandwidth. I pay a larger fee for 'faster' speed and a better modem as well as extra GB's per month. As my usage increases, so does the rate I pay. We don't have 'unlimited plans' here. Still my connection at times slows to a crawl.

It's honestly about goddamned time the CRTC got on this bullshit. We get to pay more for 'up to' certain speeds - meaning they can throttle you down to nothing as often as they want regardless of how much you pay them. But if you don't pay, the times your connection is fine, it will max out a certain(ridiculously low) speed. So we're really being extorted out of our money and getting a 'maybe you'll get service' in return. You either pay more and 'maybe' get decent service, or don't pay more and definitely not get decent service. It's a lottery.

 

[Weaver]

We as Canadians need to really stand up to this. We had an option last election to vote for a party that wanted to end bandwidth caps and promote full on net-neutrality. Instead we elected the party that wanted the opposite, is pushing for DMCA style copyright law and is also going to be making it a law that all ISP's must have government installed data collection software so they can track all citizens (find out more here http://openmedia.ca/educate).


The telecom giants need to fall and the CRTC needs to either be dissolved or entirely reformed.

I like it here, I don't want to have to leave.

 

[ciasteczkowyp]

@fix-the-spade: "80 kilobits per second == 10 MegaBytes per second " nice maths skills You have here my friend... but You're clearly wrong. 720p and 1080p live video streaming in YouTube exceeds 80 kbps limit easily, blizzard updaters that use torrents can very well cap at Your connection's capacity. For me it's around 600 Kbps (not kbps which would be 8 times less). So yeah, their limits and reasoning are totally out of this world.

 

[FreakSheet]

When TF2 went free to play, my brother got it and so did I.

The game is 8GB. We have a 60GB limit.

I don't think I need to say what happened, but it was anything but free.

EDIT: and yes, I hate Rogers with a passion. This is a case when a monopoly is NOT a good thing.

 

[Rednog]

ISPs won't be happy until they charge you the maximum amount and limit you to just viewing your email.
What happened to pushing the envelope for higher and higher speeds? It seems that companies have stopped caring and now are just finding way to increase profit by minimizing the amount of speed and usage to customers.

 

[Baldr]

We need net neutrality and we need it fast, the problem is only going to get worse especially on the mobile side.

 

[draythefingerless]

so, is someone in Canada gonna try to createa limitless plan one of these days or something? It saddens me this fine nation is failing in such a simple sector.

 

[Rainboq]

[HEADING=2]GAMERS ARE YOUR BEST CUSTOMERS?! INCREASE YOUR CAPS AND WE'LL TALK, OTHERWISE USING STEAM AND LARGE UPDATES ARE A PAIN.[/HEADING]

*tries to contain her rage and the bloated corporate giant*

OT: The CRTC, taking the side of the consumer... Gee, a bit late, don't you think?

 

[Robert0288]

so, is someone in Canada gonna try to createa limitless plan one of these days or something? It saddens me this fine nation is failing in such a simple sector.

You can't bell and rogers own all the infrastructure. There where 3rd party companies which bought bandwidth in bulk and resold to users with unlimited plans (can't remeber the name right now) but the CRTC passed something that forced these companies to put in a limit of 300GB/month. I will look for the name of the ISP.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I have a far better solution, switch your ISP, works hell of alot better then the letters they will always ignore.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

We as Canadians need to really stand up to this. We had an option last election to vote for a party that wanted to end bandwidth caps and promote full on net-neutrality. Instead we elected the party that wanted the opposite, is pushing for DMCA style copyright law and is also going to be making it a law that all ISP's must have government installed data collection software so they can track all citizens (find out more here http://openmedia.ca/educate).


The telecom giants need to fall and the CRTC needs to either be dissolved or entirely reformed.

I like it here, I don't want to have to leave.

It's not that much better here in america.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.312165-New-US-ISP-sanctioned-controlled-piracy-database-will-mean-the-end-to-internet-privacy#comment_form

 

[Nimbus]

Worth noting Malygris, 80kb/sec is roughly equal to 10MB/sec, it's actually quite a lot of data to be transferring. I can't really see how BlOps or any shooter can use that much bandwidth even on a peer to peer network.

80 kb/sec is EXACTLY equal to 10 KB/sec. Which is practically nothing.

 

[Worgen]

I have a far better solution, switch your ISP, works hell of alot better then the letters they will always ignore.

I'm not sure that Canadians can really do that, I think rogers has most of Canada in a stranglehold.

 

[Dogstile]

Worth noting Malygris, 80kb/sec is roughly equal to 10MB/sec, it's actually quite a lot of data to be transferring. I can't really see how BlOps or any shooter can use that much bandwidth even on a peer to peer network.

Wanna rethink your maths there? That doesn't seem quite right.