[Infowarrior] - Comcast to stop slowing BitTorrent traffic

[Richard Forno]

Comcast to stop slowing BitTorrent traffic

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/03/27/comcast.eases.torrents/

Comcast on Thursday made a surprise reversal of its past practices and  
said that it would halt its practice of blocking BitTorrent traffic on  
its cable Internet service. The provider revealed that it would  
instead work towards a management system on its network that will  
remain strictly neutral, preventing a bias towards or against any one  
distribution format. The move is publicly claimed as a recognition of  
the use of BitTorrent as a legitimate mechanism for business, which  
requires that it receives equal treatment along with other traffic,  
according to the company.

Adjusting these practices will demand that Comcast "rapidly  
reconfigure" its network monitoring but should more accurately reflect  
online reality, said the company's CTO, Tony Werner. Comcast noted  
that it was in discussions with BitTorrent for future plans and that  
it would openly publish its techniques to ensure that both customers  
and developers are aware of how data will behave on the cable network.

The Internet provider's action is widely understood to be a partial  
reaction to recent statements by FCC chair Kevin Martin, who argued  
this month that Comcast's approach to its Torrent-oriented practices  
was deceptive and didn't rule out the possibility of investigating the  
practice. In its existing form, the Comcast technique uses software  
from SandVine that cuts the peer-to-peer BitTorrent or Gnutella links  
between Comcast subscribers and others on the Internet under certain  
conditions, severely limiting download and upload speeds.

The cable firm admitted that its discussions with BitTorrent were  
meant to resolve problems without government intervention.

Comcast's gesture may also have been prompted by efforts on Verizon's  
part to optimize peer-to-peer traffic for known legitimate services,  
which the DSL service provider said would not only reduce costs on its  
end but improve the speed for end users.