information architecture & critical history of software (PhD research) in Toronto

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Quinn DuPont studies the critical history of software technologies, focusing on metaphysical, historical, and political issues. He has recently been studying the history of email and developing an argument about the modes of production for software development. Quinn is currently a MITACS Enhanced Accelerate PhD Fellow and iSchool PhD student in Toronto, Canada.

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reading
  • Difference and Repetition
    Difference and Repetition
    by Gilles Deleuze
  • From Taylorism to Fordism: A Rational Madness
    From Taylorism to Fordism: A Rational Madness
    by Bernard Doray
  • Questioning Technology
    Questioning Technology
    by Andrew Feenberg
« Email as push technology | Main | Rogers' traffic shaping »
Wednesday
Jul122006

Rogers Part II

And their reply:

We apologize for the delay in responding to your email.  We are
currently receiving higher email volume than normal, and are attempting
to answer all email as quickly as possible in the order they arrive.

We understand your concerns regarding issues you are experiencing with
your peer-to-peer (P2P) applications. To ensure a consistently high
level of service for all Rogers customers, it is necessary to put limits
on the amount of network bandwidth available for certain types of
applications. This process is called traffic regulation (rate-limiting,
traffic shaping, throttling).

As peer-to-peer (P2P) applications have grown in popularity, their share
of overall network traffic has increased dramatically. In particular,
the application Bittorrent uses all of the space available for uploads.
To ensure that a relatively small number of applications do not slow
service for everyone, Rogers limits the space available for P2P uploads.
This ensures all customers have a high level of service for
time-sensitive tasks like sending email, requesting web pages or voice
messaging.

Rogers does not block any type of Internet traffic or application. Nor
do we monitor the content of customer communications or activities on
the Internet. Our traffic regulation is based on the type of
application, not the way it is used.

We thank you for your understanding in this matter.

If you have any further questions or comments regarding our service,
please fill out the online form on our Customer Support page listed
below or contact us by phone at 1-888-288-4663.

Regards,
Gigi C.
Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet
Electronic Support Group

Customer Support: http://help.yahoo.com/rogers
Email: internetsupport@rci.rogers.com

Rogers Hi-Speed Internet Support

And then my reply:

Be this as it may, my End User License Agreement (EULA) does not suggest that my traffic can be purposively throttled based on my activities.  The EULA states that traffic cannot be guaranteed to be delivered in a timely manner, or ever at all, however, a lack of guarantee is a very different thing from purposely not providing me a purchased service due to my consumer habits.  On any reasonable interpretation of consumer law you may not sell a service that is purposely withheld.  Perhaps you should state in the EULA that all bittorrent traffic will result in termination of service, but then, of course, most of your customers would go elsewhere.  As it stands, you are selling me a service that involves false advertisement, I can not receive anywhere near my “max” download speed of 6MB/s, and this is not due to problems beyond Rogers’ control, instead it is being purposely restricted.

My next course of action will be to:

1) Post your reply on my blog (http://www.iqdupont.com/blog), and attempt to generate as much transparency and press as possible within the internet-savvy people.
2) Contact the Globe and Mail about exposing Rogers’ illegal behaviour.
3) Contact my legal representative about the possibility of a class action suit, and invoking the support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Should you wish start providing me with appropriate service, please feel free to contact me at [EDITED].

Sincerely,
Isaac Quinn DuPont

Reader Comments (8)

Shocking! -ro6leeg7

July 12, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterRoy

Wow, you actually are going to take them to court. That is most excellent.

July 13, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterBrad

I can't stand these companies that do this. I'm glad I live in the US for this matter, but right now I am on vacation at a relative's cabin and they have Rogers and yes, it sucks.

January 2, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterWillie

I am haveing problems with my phone, and there is no way to contact rogers by iinternet unless you have 1-an e-mail of course,2-you have a home phone and 3rd you have to have a wireless line as well,I have 2 of the three and there fore am unable to get them to address my phone problem.

March 9, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterDave Prince

Kudos to you! I'm experiencing the exact same problems with Rogers and found your post above while trying to research other ISP alternatives in Ontario. It pisses me off that we're paying for a service that we cannot use to its full potential.

Best of luck!

August 9, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterStephane

This is what I wrote to Rogers" This account is under my father (My Fathers name here). He has been a loyal customer for years to Rogers. The internet account that has been active for years is now in process of being canceled. His account was Rogers High Speed internet Ultra light (original 25GB) most recently he has been getting bills for over usage, charges that have been calculated over new rate (NEW 2GB) usage. I hope the paper work is getting sorted out at Rogers. This was the exact same reason why all my services with Rogers have been canceled. Good luck in your future easy money making. Cheers,

Lukasz Tracz

This will be re-sent, here is a web blog you might use to train your staff, but as I read it, only proves that it doesn't matter what I write here. You simply don't listen, just copy and paste. Good luck with that.
http://blog.webcopyplus.com/2008/04/20/rogers-customer-service/"

Now I am just copying and pasting, I guess it is okay to do this. Learned from the best (Robbers Internet) (You pay, sign, and never receive)

November 25, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterLukasz Tracz

I recently went from getting 500k and above downloads with BitTorrent to getting 5.5kb avg. I pay approx 50 dollars a month for Rogers supposed extreme service. I'll be switching ISP's next month

April 7, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterCaptain Smashy

I tries to connect to your blog but I found it was blocked by Rogers!So I used VPN and I could see your blog.So you are in a big battle with rogers.

October 30, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterEbijik
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