Class Action Suit Against Bell For Throttling 87
doppiodave writes "Hard on the heels of the Net Neutrality bill introduced in Canada's Parliament, a class action suit was filed yesterday against Bell by Quebec's Consumers Union, asking that extensive compensation be paid to all Bell's DSL subscribers for fraudulent advertising and privacy violations. The press release is available in French. The timing of this suit coincides with several other developments that suggest Net Neutrality is finally coming to the attention of the general public and Canada's regulator, the CRTC, which recently required Bell to file responses (by May 29) to an exhaustive list of interrogatories about its traffic-shaping practices."
Press release translation (Score:5, Informative)
Bell Canada, which announces in the promotion of its Internet access services "a constant speed, an access that is always fast, without frustrating slowdowns, even at peak hours" has installed on its network since last fall, surreptitiously, a mechanism that deliberately slows down, at peak hours, the transfer speed of its subscribers' data.
To inspect the users' data and manage the Internet traffic, Bell uses a technology called Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) which breaches the right to privacy of the consumers using their Internet access services.
Myrna Raphael has signed in 2006 a 3-year contract, wanting to take advantage of the constant speed offered by Bell Canada. For this consumer, as well as thousands of others, the constant speed was a key factor in her choice. Since Bell has systematically applied its slowdown measures, Mrs. Raphael and her spouse could not, in the evening, perform on the Internet any of the activities for which she had subscribed.
The Consumers' Union therefore asks of the Court to declare illicit Bell Canada's policy regarding the unilateral and systematic slowdown of data transfer towards its hundreds of thousands of subscribers and to force Bell Canada to reimburse these consumers, to whom Bell does not offer what they paid for, 80% of the sum of their monthly subscription. The Consumers' Union also asks of the Court to force Bell Canada to pay 600 [Canadian] dollars in damages for any and all false representations made to their subscribers regarding the constant speed of the Internet access that it committed to provide them, to order Bell to cease all breaches to the right to privacy of its subscribers and to force the company to pay them 1500 [Canadian] dollars for breaching their right to privacy.
The Consumers' Union and Myrna Raphael, the designated person, are represented by the law firm Unterberg Labelle Lebeau.
Information: Anthony Hémond, analyst, politics and legislation for telecommunications, broadcasting, information technology and privacy, The Consumers' Union, (514) 521-6820 extension 253
Do not call this number if you don't speak French! The official language in Quebec is French, and this designated person may not speak English.
DISCLAIMER: This is not an official translation. I do understand French, however, as my mother tongue.
Also, first post.
Re:The cynical reality (Score:3, Informative)
Dual languages and communications (Score:2, Informative)
Legal correspondence from Quebec to another province, or within another province, would have to be done only in English, I think, unless it were New Brunswick.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.
Re:Sorry but isn't dual language a mandate in Cana (Score:1, Informative)
But that's only for legal documents, anyway. Which press releases from a consumer's union are not. Whether to issue a bilingual press release would be entirely at the organization's discretion (neither forbidden nor required) in this case.
Re:Sorry but isn't dual language a mandate in Cana (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Press release translation (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Press release translation (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Press release translation (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, the official language is French, but they are part of an officially bilingual country (Canada) and big businesses realize that they operate in a world where English is the most common language. Once you get away from the sociopathic hard line politicians, common sense does exert some influence.
Finally, the number is a Montreal number for a firm that deals with politics and legislation and consumer rights for big business issues. I'd put the odds at 95%> that if you dialled that number and started speaking in English the person at the other end would respond to you in English
Re:Sorry but isn't dual language a mandate in Cana (Score:2, Informative)
(From http://en.wikipedia.orgwiki/Nunavut#Language [en.wikipedia.orgwiki]) "Along with Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, English, and French are also official languages."
And if you step outside the larger communities, It's almost exclusively Inuktitut, A very pretty language. All of the signs are in Inuktitut, English and French.
You should go there some time. (So you can really know your own country.) I have, in the spring. It was beautiful, and -35C.
Re:You /were/ rich. (Score:1, Informative)
There isn't really a single 'backbone' but you are correct that Bell does run a lot of our traffic.
Bell has a monopoly on the DSL lines in many parts of the country (but not all! there are some other regional monopolies). They also run lots of backbone fiber.
Many ISPs lease fiber from Bell for their long-haul (backbone) links but in most cases these are layer 1 or layer 2 services and thus not affected by any 'Internet' policies or activities of Bell.
In areas where bell has a DSL monopoly there is a DSL-backhaul problem. ISPs buying wholesale DSL from them are stuck traversing some of bell's network.
Bell is f-ing evil. They don't make reasonable peering agreements like most Internet companies do.
They try to 'be the Internet' and make everyone pay them for access.
Other 'backbone' providers are much better. Companies like Peer1, global crossing and regional fiber network operators like Ontario Hydro and the cable operators (rogers, cogeco, videotron) are better.
If you get Internet access from Rogers or Videotron or one of the small ISPs you may not have to send any traffic over bell's network at all. Bell is actually quite expensive for Internet transit. Most small ISPs use much more Cogent/peer1/xo than Bell bandwidth.