Good bye Bell

For those of you who are not aware. Bell Canada started throttling their users and resellers without any prior announcement. This is the first time that any ISP ever pissed me off enough for me to actually take action. I decided to send a letter to the Council of Canadians. Here’s the letter that I decided to send and I am also in the process of finding out whom I can cc in Bell to get the point across.

Minister Prentice,

I am against Bell Canada’s internet traffic throttling official starting April 7.

I’ve been an avid user of the Internet for 17 years now and have never been bothered by any policies that my ISP implemented. I’ve always tried to pick the right ISP that suits my need before I sign up so as to avoid headaches later on. Which is why when Bell Canada announced that they are throttling my TekSavvy connection I became enraged.

Not only is it a breach of whatever agreement they have with their resellers, it is also a classical “bait and switch” from the business stand point. If they don’t want the competition and extra usage from 3rd parties, why did they lease out their lines to resellers in the first place? Shouldn’t someone file a class action lawsuit?

In any case, this is the last line. If nothing is done about this, not only will I stop using bell, I will personally make sure that I spread the word on why nobody should use Bell. In my circle, people respect me as an Engineer and listen to my technical recommendations because they trust my understanding in technology. I will personally make sure that all my co-workers (who happens to be engineers in high tech companies and are the most savvy users of Internet), all my Internet acquaintances as well as future recommendations all steer clear of Bell. No, not just Bell Canada, but all of Bell.

It might just be the silver bullet to solve your network congestion problems. If enough people stop using your services, wouldn’t the traffic be freed up for everyone who stayed? Think about that and factor in the future loss of businesses from me and others like me. I am pissed off, not because of losing the ability to download anything fast, not because of intermittent connections. I have survived the good ol’ 28800 baud rate modems which makes me a very patient man. No, I am pissed off because you “bait and switched” and tried to blame your end users.

I am probably the least affected of your throttling. I use the net only for blogging and surfing with the occasional gaming throw in the line. I do enjoy a high speed connection for those just in case scenarios. For that, I pay a price. Your ideal customer. You are losing an ideal customer get it? Now, normally, when anyone pull this on me, I’d just stop doing business and do a clean cut, however, your sneaky tactic ensures that the loss of my business will actually hurt my current ISP: Teksavvy. This is the only reason why I am hesitating about what to do and that is also your fault since you anticipated it.

I am outraged that Canada does not have a policy to protect my ability to communicate and access information freely on the Internet and urge you to take action on this matter immediately.

Sincerely,