Comcast Takes New Approach to Bandwidth Management
About a month ago, Comcast announced that it was going to confine its users to 250GB a month in bandwidth usage before implementing overage charges. Now, they’re testing a new method that will throttle heavy users during peak hours regardless of what users are utilizing the bandwidth for.
Comcast has come under fire for “delaying,” as they call it, P2P traffic during peak hours. “Delaying” is Comcast’s legalese word for “blocking,” and the FCC decided that it needed to get involved earlier this year. “Comcast blocking BitTorrent is the canary in the coal mine for corporations that seek to take over the Internet,” said Free Press‘ Ben Scott earlier this year. “The FCC should immediately stop Comcast from blocking Internet traffic and then proceed with this important investigation and public comment process. It’s high time to involve the American public in this matter.”
Apparently, Comcast has been scared straight about specifically targeting P2P traffic, and now testing the “one size fits all” approach to traffic throttling. Since many business legitimately use P2P protocols, simply going after the pirates wasn’t fair to users engaging in perfectly legal utilization of bandwidth. The bigger issue, however, was exactly what Scott brought up: the first steps away from net neutrality.
Comcast is testing the new method in two Pennsylvania and Virginia cities, and will perhaps move it to Colorado Springs if everything goes as planned.
No word if the FCC is satisfied with the arrangement, but it seems to pass the smell test for now. It will be interesting to see how Comcast’s users respond to this, and how noticeable and far-reaching the program will be.
Thanks to John Timmer and Eric Bangeman at Ars Technica for the story and the quote.
Technorati Tags: comcast, net neutrality, bittorrent, bandwidth management, net neutrality
