BCE, Rogers tell CRTC they don’t throttle mobile traffic

In documents submitted to the CRTC this week, BCE Inc. said it does not throttle mobile data traffic, though it’s prepared to if necessary, while Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron said it does and there is no contradiction between that and its experiment with mobile-TV plans where the data used does not count against caps. The documents were issued in response to interrogatories put out by the CRTC earlier this month, in which it asked the companies to explain why they need to use traffic-management practices on their networks while encouraging customers to use mobile-TV services that “ considerable bandwidth.” They were issued as part of a proceeding looking at an undue preference complaint against the companies’ mobile-TV services, which allow customers to pay a fixed amount for a certain number of viewing hours without it counting against their regular data caps. Critics have said such practices are a violation of net neutrality. Videotron gives customers the option to order a block of viewing hours for its Illico Mobile App on Android devices and BlackBerrys, charging $5 for five hours, $10 for 15 hours or $15 for 30 hours, according to its website. In its French-language response to the CRTC, the company said it doesn’t see a contradiction between the need to use traffic-management practices under specific circumstances and experimenting with new content offerings and pricing policies. Videotron had previously told the CRTC that it starts managing connections when data usage by customers with unlimited plans exceeds 5 GB in a billing cycle. In response to the CRTC’s question, which asked “if a customer does use more than 5GB of illico mobile App within a given billing cycle, would this customer be subject to the same restrictions?” the company responded that customers using its iPhone app are subject to the same restrictions, while Android and BlackBerry customers are not. It also said that in the case of network congestion, Android and BlackBerry customers using the Illico app are given priority over other traffic, while iPhone customers are not. It added that it is planning on launching a new Android and BlackBerry app modeled on the iPhone app, which will not be given priority. The iPhone app was launched separately from the Android and BlackBerry apps. In its response, Bell said that it does have Internet traffic management practices in place which have been “designed in anticipation of the potential for customers on grandfathered unlimited legacy plans to generate excessive usage as well as for instances where usage is materially impacting,” but it said that it has “yet to apply this ITMP to any customer.” It added it doesn’t prioritize mobile-TV traffic over other traffic on its network. The company also said that the throttling policy doesn’t apply to users of its Bell Mobile TV service. “The technical ITMP mentioned in our contracts would not apply to Bell Mobile TV given that Bell Mobile TV is a broadcasting service and is not offered or charged on the basis of data transit,” it said. Bell had previously argued that its mobile-TV service, which allows customers to watch 10 hours of content for $5, does not constitute an undue preference because it is a broadcasting service and not an Internet service. Telecom blogger Ben Klass, who filed the original complaint against Bell that was later combined with complaints by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) against Rogers and Videotron, said Bell’s response didn’t really answer the CRTC’s question. “And to suggest they need to limit the use of their legacy unlimited customers is totally ludicrous, because it’s not … the few stragglers who are still on these unlimited plans who are generating network usage. It’s the 1.5 million people who are being encouraged to use mobile TV,” he said. In its response, Rogers said it does not “perform any traffic management aside from enforcing the speed cap of each Internet package,” adding it does not “throttle speeds of any particular wireless or wireline traffic. All data that travels across our network is treated the same,” with exceptions in place for actions necessary to deal with “spam, viruses, or other security or network performance threats.” The Wire Report reported Thursday that Rogers has changed the pricing of data used by its Anyplace TV app as of Aug. 18. After that date, standard data charges apply to customers who use the app while on its wireless network, compared to a previous option that allowed customers to pay $5 a month to view 10 hours of programming. Barclays analyst Philip Huang said in a research note Friday that the CRTC process is “unlikely to have material financial impact” on the companies involved, though it “would likely limit vertically integrated operators' flexibility to use mobile video to differentiate their wireless offering.” He said that “we do not see material financial risk for the three vertically integrated mobile operators given the revenues generated from mobile video for their distribution and media businesses are still relatively nascent,” with Bell earning less than $50 million annually from mobile TV, which amounts to about 0.2 per cent of its revenue. Eliminating $5 plans “would effectively be a significant price increase for users of those mobile TV apps,” he said. Huang added that while this would result in fewer mobile-TV subscribers, “it might ironically also drive higher for the operators to the extent that these mobile apps continue to propel data consumption, especially as more premium content (e.g. hockey) is made available over mobile.” He added that the most significant impact from restrictions for mobile TV might be for Rogers, given its recent $5.2-billion investment in hockey rights, the $3.3 billion it spent on spectrum in the recent 700 MHz auction “and its planned strategy to leverage mobile video to set apart its wireless services from the competition.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

BCE, Rogers tell CRTC they don’t throttle mobile traffic

News | 08/22/2014 10:19 pm EDT

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