Broadband Internet users unite to take on Rogers, Shaw and other providers

Dissatisfaction with the quality of service offered by cable modems has prompted high-speed Internet users in Canada to form their own lobby group. The newly formed Residential Broadband Users’ Association (RBUA) (www.rbua.org) started out in January 1999 as the Rogers @Home Users Association (RHUA), and after one transformation, is beginning to attract interest from high-speed customers beyond Canada’s borders. Service problems with Rogers @Home led Rob Mitzel and associate Chris Weisdorf to found the RHUA to ensure their customer concerns were being heard and responded to by the giant cableco. Weisdorf says they chose the association method because they felt they had no other options open to them. The cable regulator, they found, was unprepared to deal with end user complaints. "One of the reasons the RHUA was formed in the first place is that the CRTC would do nothing. I went to the CRTC at the end of 1998 and they just turned their head the other way. They just didn’t do anything," he laments. Since then, a property swap has seen Rogers shed its holdings in western Canada as it picks up eastern assets from Shaw Cable. The @Home service in British Columbia, formerly offered by Rogers, is now a Shaw property. In response, the Rogers @Home group evolved into the RBUA, which Weisdorf sees growing beyond Canada’s borders. "I’d like to leave us some room to expand further," Weisdorf, now president of the RBUA, told Network Letter. "There are no other groups like us in North America. There are some other ones who are loosely organized." For more than two years, @Home subscribers have been complaining about intermittent service. As a RHUA representative in March 1999, Weisdorf passed on those concerns in a meeting with Bill Lukevich, the GM for Rogers Cable in the Greater Toronto Area, Vic Pollen, the director of operations for Rogers @Home, and the director of network operations Rob Boucher. Although the cableco team said all the right things, the quality of service didn’t back them up. "By May, the service was just horrible," Weisdorf remembers. "The mail service, the news, everything were all losing packets like crazy. It looked like some kind of saturation problem with the hardware."The service experienced major problems from April to July 1999. There followed a grace period from July until the following November when the service was stable. During this time Weisdorf met with Rogers Cable president John Tory. He recalls that Tory, like other company executives, said the right things. But once again, Weisdorf says the system couldn’t back him up. "I warned them something like that was close to happening," he says. "I said ‘if you don’t take care of these problems here, the service will collapse.’ And that’s exactly what happened." Weisdorf blames overprovisioning for the foul-ups. As soon as Rogers could solve one problem, another would arise. The technical support line, always subject to long waiting periods, was now giving off busy signals. Part of the problem is that the Canadian cableco does not direct the service. "Rogers really has no control over their own Internet service. Rogers @Home is a marketing entity, that’s all they are. They’re not anything else," the RBUA president asserts. "They don’t provision the service in any way. They might say ‘we’re working hard to restore your service’, but they don’t provide the service. Excite @Home in Redwood City CA provides it. They have complete control over the service." Forum for complaints The RBUA is revamping its web site to serve its 850 members better. For example, members can fill out a complaint form on the site which can then be forwarded to the appropriate people at the Internet provider. This ensures the subscriber gets the attention required while at the same time preventing the ISP from claiming it hadn’t received the information. The association is also developing a network status page to prove problems exist. Should ISPs be unable to find problems, RBUA members will have tracked them already. Weisdorf has had discussions with officials at Shaw, but no formal meetings have taken place as yet. He hopes to develop similar relationships with cablecos like Cogeco and Vidéotron and says the group is open to DSL and wireless Internet users as well. "We need to get something more official going," he offers. "With respect to other services, that’ll come in time. We’ve got to start with a steady pace and work our way forward. Sympatico is certainly a target of ours." The RBUA has held informal discussions with the Canadian Association of Internet Providers about its concerns. It hopes to strengthen those bonds, as well as with the commission and the Competition Bureau. The group’s web site is getting thousands of hits each day from those interested in its cause. Weisdorf and his allies have been paying for the upkeep of the organization out of their own pockets. They intend to seek donations soon, although the president stresses there will be no obligation on those who join the RBUA. The formalized structure of the RBUA has drawn notice south of the border. Service problems tend to be even worse in the United States but no lobby group exists. The organizations that are functioning tend to be little more than glorified chat rooms. Weisdorf quotes an American consumer advocate (and former presidential candidate) when he explains why the RBUA and other groups are needed. "Consumers rights are at an all time low now. Ralph Nader said consumer litigation is at an all time low. Corporate-to-corporate litigation is at an all time high."

Broadband Internet users unite to take on Rogers, Shaw and other providers

News | 04/09/2001 4:00 am EDT

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