A shift from broader bandwidth to higher quality of service for
voice over the Internet is being watched closely by the Canadian
telecom industry, with most analysts expressing concern that the
move may jeopardize advances in technology.
Calgary-based Shaw Communications Inc. recommends its high-speed
Internet users pay an additional $10 monthly fee to ensure voice
packets travel first-class on its network, giving priority to VoIP
software ahead of other Web-enabled applications.
Vonage Canada has asked for a full investigation by the Canadian
Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), calling
the fee a VoIP tax and accusing the telco of limiting net
neutrality.
Shaw says the fee will pay for network multimedia management
technology -- traffic shaping tools such as PacketCable 2.0, DOCSIS
and Ellacoya's IP Service Control -- that will ensure quality of
service for common VoIP software such as Skype, Vonage and MSN
Messenger.
Asking for a QoS enhancement fee is one way of changing the
model from offering faster and faster speeds, says Brian Sharwood,
a principal analyst at SeaBoard Group Inc. in Toronto. "I'm not
sure there's anything particularly inherently wrong with that," he
says.
Sharwood says market forces in Western Canada allow Shaw to
operate off a different model for quality of service on its
Internet network. Toronto-based Rogers Communications Inc., for
example, has gone the other way, he says.
"Rogers feels it's important that Vonage works on its Internet
connections at an acceptable quality level. But the market dynamics
are different: Rogers has 50 per cent of the high-speed market and
want to win more, whereas Shaw has about 80 per cent of the market
out West."
Sharwood stresses the Internet should not be prioritized for the
owner of the pipe and says Shaw's QoS fee does present some
questions. "The customer is buying something that's quite ethereal.
There's no visibility and there's no way the end-user can measure
QoS."
Shaw's concerns about voice quality are quite valid, but a lot
depends on how the company implements the services associated with
the $10 fee, says George Goodall, a research analyst with London,
Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group Inc.
Goodall says Shaw is justified in levelling the QoS fee. "These
are genuine concerns around prioritization for voice packets, and
it makes a lot of sense because they're looking at differentiating
network traffic. On a commercial level, these issues are top of
mind and businesses pay extra in hardware and service to ensure
voice quality," he says.
But Goodall cautions: "We haven't yet seen what this fee
involves in terms of the technology and service levels."
Shaw perceives that too many entities, such as Vonage, Skype and
other peer-to-peer programs, are getting a free ride on its
network, says Lawrence Surtees, vice-president and principal
analyst, communications research at IDC Canada Ltd. And Shaw is now
saying it needs to have people pay for what they're doing, he
adds.
"But the high-speed Internet user is already paying for access
to that service," says Surtees, who agrees Shaw's enhancement fee
is a tax. "We learn as kids that if you don't ask, you don't get.
Well, phone companies seem to have learned that if you don't take,
you don't get," he says.
Surtees says he's seen a lot of this type of behaviour in the
history of Canadian telecom. "Whenever there's some disruptive
change, [the telcos] dig in their heels and use their clout, or
their tolls, in these kinds of ways.
"They'll develop something draconian and there'll be a
regulatory or legal issue and the companies will be told what
they're doing is unreasonable, but in the meantime they've pocketed
all this money."
Having transport-related charges in an Internet world is
counterproductive, says Roberta Fox, a senior partner with Mount
Albert, Ont.-based Fox Group. "It could be detrimental to VoIP
technologies and it's not good for competition," she says.
According to Vonage, Shaw is looking for a way to regain some of
the costs incurred to make sure its network is built to handle the
reality of an evolving Internet.
"Shaw needs to explain [its QoS enhancement fee] better because
we think they're violating the trust they've built up in their
customer base, and the public in general," says Joe Parent,
vice-president of marketing for Mississauga, Ont.-based Vonage
Canada.
Shaw's challenge is to minimize traffic contention and one way
of ensuring quality is subscribing to a different tier of service,
says Peter Bissonnette, president of Shaw Communications.
PacketCable 2.0 and IP Multimedia Service, for example, give
higher quality of service to VoIP users than to somebody who just
wants to browse the Internet. "It's similar to the difference
between T1 and OC192. There are different levels of service for
different types of applications," he says.
"So if somebody wanted that greater assurance, we're able to
provide it with DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface
Specification) and some RF tailoring, as well as PacketCable 2.0 in
the future."
Bissonnette says Shaw can also manage Internet traffic with
technology from Ellacoya Networks, Inc. "We can only manage the
network as far as we control the network. Peer-to-peer can consume
the whole pipe if you let it, but Ellacoya allows us to manage
BitTorrent-type traffic. There's a host of things we can do and
they all cost money."
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