Current policies and practices pertaining to “net neutrality” in the Canadian context.
Why or Why not is “net neutrality” an important principle?

Orlando Desmond D’Souza
103455783

Dr. Valerie Scatamburlo-D'annibale
Introduction to Media and Society: 40-101-01
Tuesday October 25, 2011

Net Neutrality also known as Network Neutrality is one of the most highly debated topic of the century. The debate is fundamentally based on the future of the Internet and the role it would play in the society. It has received a great deal of attention from various people including telecommunication experts, certain political representatives as well as the press. It mainly states that Internet Service providers (ISP’s) must treat all data sources equally. In other words it means that the users of the internet must have the freedom to access the internet without any restrictions put upon them by the ISP’s. The term ‘net neutrality’ is defined in a number of ways by different communities, companies and individuals. Barratt and Shade stressed upon another condition that; there are no means by which centralized mechanisms can be used to control the Internet. Moreover Moll and Shade argued that the corporations that own networks have no control of the information that runs through them (Moll & Shade, 2008: VIII). Many organizations and companies try to use it in various forms.
There are several examples on net neutrality with respect to Canada with one of them being the Telus issue. Based on research it was found out that Telus blocked access to a pro-union site by blocking its main server which in turn blocked another 766 unrelated sites for subscribers. Later on Telus defended its decision as it said due to the access of some confidential information famous example is of a cable internet company named Shaw. Shaw had charged a $10 quality of service fee from its customers if they used a VoIP service of another provider. The $10 fee was removed if the customers continued the Shaw VoIP service. Several VoIP companies challenged the fee charged by Shaw. An example which relates the term in regards with Canada and its ties with other countries such as America is the MCI Canada. Though owned by an American ISP –Verizon it has threathend to close of the Canadian web hosting services known as euphoria.com. Certain sites hosted by euphoria breach Verizon’s policy whereas it did not trespass the Canadian Law (Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, 2006).
As per consideration by a lot of experts, it is suggested that the term ‘net neutrality’ must be re- organized in a way that it puts the interest of the public at large as the major key stakeholder. In Canada it is seen that the debate on net neutrality is most commonly divided between two sides. On one side are the ISP’s/ telecommunication companies such as Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Telus etc. From their point of view they see net neutrality as a resistance from higher competition and greater innovation between them. Additionally they tell us that a certain required amount of investment is required commercially to see that the Internet is effective. On the other side are a group of diverse mixed views. This comprises the public interest groups, service providers etc who state that net neutrality has to be in place so as to follow the key values of the Internet and maintain its integrity.
For quite some time now there have been several industrial practices, legislations on hold, proposals etc relevant to the issue of net neutrality in Canada. Moving on it has been found that the major ISP’s such as Rogers, Shaw, Telus in Canada have moved on to strategic technique known as DPI, which means ”deep packet inspection”. Upon comments from several experts it has been seen that DPI is being widely deployed by the ISP’s in order to manage and identify the traffic that flows over the net in relation with a certain applications. A very common practice that can be seen today that has been used by the ISP’s is the intended delay of transmission of certain content which has been coined ‘less time-sensitive’ than the other content transmitted.
Certain policies concerning Canada’s communication were drafted even before industrial practices. A Review Panel was entrusted in 2005, known as the Telecommunications Policy Review Pane which focused on studying and commenting on the general Canadian Communication system. Further on their research the most important policy issue that the Panel arose was when the carriers would charge the public for accessing, logging on and at times blocking the site totally on the Internet for pure business reasons. In order to control such policy issues the Ministry of Industry issued to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) their first ever “Policy Direction”. The purpose of the directive, according to its accompanying regulatory impact analysis statement, was “to mandate that the CRTC should rely on market forces to the maximum extent feasible and regulate, where there is still a need to do so, in a manner that interferes with market forces to the minimum extent necessary” (Industry Canada 2006).
When it comes to the question, “Is or is not net neutrality an important principle?” it again varies from each memeber. The internet is a free source of information for all and also is the main way for one to transmit matter outside and thus should be protected from all forms of ownership and censorship. This is where net neutrality plays a pivotal role. As its definition suggests it provides equality to all. A simple example to support the point; in regards with Universities, these institutions require broadband services which are flexible and affordable to provide the best education to the younger generations to all parts of a community. At present the faculty staff and students use modern day technologies such as online learning etc especially in distant education courses. But it is feared that these advancements of technology and internet will go unrealized if the basic motive and principal of net neutrality is not maintained. As a member of public I believe that access to all information over the internet is a basic human right and net neutrality proves to be the major component of democracy to grant us these rights.

Bibliography:

* http://netneutrality.koumbit.org/en/node/5 * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9jHOn0EW8U&feature=player_embedded * http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume41/TheNetNeutralityDebateTheBasic/158063 * http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=cmst_grad_research * http://www.tja.org.au/index.php/tja/article/view/110 * http://blogs.ubc.ca/dean/2011/01/why-net-neutrality-is-important-for-me/