CanCult.ca

As usual, the best coverage is over at Michael Geist’s site.

Day two of the CRTC network management hearing featured some great presentations from the Open Internet Coalition, Zip.ca, CISP, and two knowledgeable individuals – Jean-Francois Mezei and Jason Roks.  The presenters had some strong words about the lack of Canadian competition for high-speed Internet service, the debatable claims about the impact of P2P on congestion, and the overstated advertising claims.  Unfortunately, it would appear once again that the Commission has accepted the ISP claims regarding congestion and network costs, leaving the panelists with the challenge of overcoming those basic assumptions.

That said, the day featured some startling revelations including Zip.ca’s Rob Hall stating that it is currently cheaper to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on postage to send DVDs via the mail, rather than distributing the same content electronically through the Internet given the bandwidth costs.  Moreover, Jason Roks emphasized peering arrangements, where he stated that Bell is the only major Canadian ISP that refuses to peer with anyone else.