CRTC Rattles Sabre At ISPs Who Breach Internet Traffic Management Rules

The CRTC has introduced new procedural guidelines - including a range of enforcement mechanisms it may use against non-compliant Internet Service Providers (ISPs) - to deal with complaints from customers who claim that ISPs are inappropriately slowing down access to certain internet content. 

The CRTC had already established a principle-based 2009 policy to deal with Internet Traffic Management Practices (ITMPs), which are economic or technological measures used by ISPs to control the flow of traffic on their networks in order to prevent or respond to congestion issues, including disproportionate use by some users.

That policy, which favours network builds and pricing initiatives to deal with internet traffic congestion, generally requires that ISPs be transparent with their customers with respect to any technological traffic management practices, such as slowing down or "throttling" a particular type of traffic, like Peer-to-Peer applications or gaming.  The