In late October, Slyck reported on the bizarre and unexplained P2P occurrences for MediaCom ISP users. According to numerous MediaCom users on BroadBandReports.com and Slyck, the ability to connect and participate on P2P networks, especially BitTorrent, was virtually nil. According to statements from both MediaCom and their provider, AT&T, there was no known problem and the situation mysteriously corrected itself.

It appears a similar situation is appearing in Canada with Shaw Communications subscribers. Shaw Communications is well-established communications company that provides Broadband Cable access across Canada. Much like the mysterious situation in the United States two weeks ago, Shaw customers have witnessed their BitTorrent experiences deteriorate.

According to numerous forum posts at RBUA.org (Resident Broadband Users Association) and BroadBandReports.com, customers of Shaw Communications have experienced their upload speed drop to often below 1 kB/sec. Different customers have been affected in various ways. While some report no difference in download speed, others report deterioration in both upload and download speed. Interestingly, much like the MediaCom situation, there are some individuals that report no deterioration at all.

Shaw Communication has commented (11th post down) on the issue, in response to an anonymous post by an individual claiming (fourth post down) to be a technical support employee of the ISP. The anonymous individual claimed that Shaw Communications was indeed throttling certain P2P traffic.

"This information is based upon the posts of a user in a discussion forum rather than on an official statement issued by Shaw. While posters in forums do often make claims of having inside knowledge of the issues with the service in question (whether that service is Shaw or otherwise), there is no way to confirm the accuracy of the information being posted by that user, not to mention the fact that the poster may or may not even be in a position to acquire that information. The only information about the Shaw network which should be taken as fact is that information released by Shaw. At present, Shaw has not taken any position on the situation regarding peer to peer filesharing speeds, and is investigating the situation in order to determine the cause of the issue. If you could provide us with the following information, we would be better able to investigate the problem and take the appropriate action to address it. "