In a programmer’s mind

This is my unpleasant tale with Bell Canada. In case you do not know what is Bell in Canada, it is the biggest telecommunication company in the country. It owns many network links mostly in the easter part of Canada. It used to be a monopoly but now, I would describe it as a “minipoly”. It provides phone, internet and satellite TV services to many Canadians.

Last year, I moved to Sherbrooke. As an internet addict, I needed to find my new pusher.

I must have had some of my brain parts disabled by all the ads they place everywhere, but I choose to phone Bell to get my access. That was not particularly bad. It was quick and straightforward. I knew what I wanted. I got the simple broadband special with the new client promotion. They always have a new client promotion. I had to agree to a full year contract in order to get the promotion.

A few months later, I received a phone call from one of Bell’s annoying representative asking me if I wanted to get a better internet package for a higher price with some kind of integrated firewall, router, anti-virus, anti-spam thing. I politely declined by staying that I do not need those extras as I know how to get most of them for free.

This was not the case with my sister. She gets her fix with Bell too and she received the same phone call. Unknowingly that she already had all those extras for free, she accepted the offer because she thought that she would be more secure online. I wonder how many people without the proper technical knowledge got trapped too. My sister is now stuck with a contract paying for something she does not need.

Back to my story, I received the same annoying call a few months later. Again I told them that I already have those things and that I already refused a similar offer.

A few months ago, I noticed that my bittorrent speed dropped sharply to the point where it was like downloading on a dial up modem. After a few searches and reading a forum or two, some people were having suspicions about Bell playing the throttling card. It was later confirmed by multiple Bell customers and even later on, confirmed by a Bell PR employee.

That is when I choose that I will not renew my access with Bell. I even wrote to my member of parliament about it. I told him that we should encourage more competition in the internet service provider field and that we should pass a net neutrality law for providers. Unfortunately, I have not received any response from him.

Two days ago, I called Bell to tell them that I will not renew my contract with them for the next year. They asked me why and I told them that I do not agree with them interfering with my connection for specific applications and that I found a better price and a better service at one of their competitor. They asked me if I would accept the same contract with a lower and better price to match the competitor and I said no.

Yesterday, I received a call from their loyalty department. They wanted to know why I was leaving and probably wanted to keep me on the line. I never got to tell them why because the line dropped in the middle of our conversation. I guess they have some problems with their lines too.

Their loyalty department called me again today at dinner time. I told them the same thing regarding the throttling, the price and the service. The representative on the phone than told me that only happens once or twice a month. Everyone who is using peer-to-peer software on Bell’s network knows that they are throttling from 4:30 PM to 2 AM everyday. I wish I had recorded that conversation to show you. The representative on the phone even tried to sell me one of those all-in-one package internet access with a better throughput for a higher price. He was really insisting on the fact that those new package are better and that I would like it. I terminated that conversation politely and quickly as I was hungry seeing my dinner getting colder.

What I want is my internet service provider to be neutral regarding whatever application I am using on the internet. That is something Bell cannot offer me.

As an interesting update on the subject, a class-action lawsuit has been filed against Bell for this practice. I hope it gets accepted so I can cash back on some of those reduced functionalities