Canadian Network Neutrality Protest May 27

Bell Canada decision sparks continued outrage...

Rocky Gaudrault, the CEO of Canadian DSL provider TekSavvy, tells me that their planned network neutrality protest is officially scheduled for May 27. Canadians plan to protest on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, assuming they aren't detained, tasered, and subsequently liquidated by Bell Canada shock troops. Obviously I'm kidding. Everyone knows it's the automated Bell Canada hunter seeker drones you have to watch out for.

A few weeks ago, Bell Canada thought it would be a really good idea to degrade the quality of the bandwidth they sold wholesalers by throttling it before it reached competitor networks. They also thought it would be a good idea initially not to tell any of those competitors and customers they'd be doing this.

Their decision, aimed primarily at ensuring that competing ISPs couldn't offer better service than Bell Canada's throttled Sympatico service, resulted in Canadians getting a crash course in network neutrality. Gaudrault tells me indie ISPs are expecting a decision by Canadian regulators on whether they plan to do anything about it by May 15.

The official protest website should have additional information in short order.