M-Lab data suggests Rogers is a heavier traffic manager

Online data compiled by users of Google Inc.’s Measurement Lab (MLab) project suggests Rogers Communications Inc. is managing Internet subscribers using BitTorrent and other protocols at a much high rate than its Canadian competitors. M-Lab is a program that allows users to measure how their service providers are slowing down connections carrying specific types of Internet data. It released provider-specific throttling that shows how frequently users were subject to traffic management between the second quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2010. Nine Canadian service providers were included on the list of international Internet providers that M-Lab’s users had completed tests on, offering a rare—if imperfect—picture of how Canadians' Internet traffic is being managed by ISPs. The M-Lab data said that, following the project’s second reporting period in the third quarter of 2008, Rogers’ subscribers were slowed down at a higher rate than users on nearly all competing networks. Since that time, Rogers’ customers have been traffic managed at a rate above or approaching 80 per cent in every quarter and equaling 78 per cent for the last reporting period in 2010, the M-Lab data said. An 80 per cent rate would mean that, 80 per cent of the time, upstream traffic would be slowed down or managed to some extent. Cogeco Cable Inc. customers also recorded throttling rates of around 80 per cent, although that number fell consistently since the start of 2009 and was down to about 46 per cent a year later. Of other major service providers, customers of Shaw Communications Inc. and Bell Canada Enterprises Inc. recorded traffic management rates of 14 and 16 per cent, respectively. Due to the project’s reliance on user-input, sample sizes were at least three times larger for the three largest providers than they were for smaller ones.

M-Lab data suggests Rogers is a heavier traffic manager

Brief | October 26, 2011

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