FCC set to vote against Comcast

Paul Mah — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:01:34 -0400

If reports are to be believed, the majority of FCC commissioners will vote in favor of punishing Comcast for secretly impeding BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing on its network. Scheduled to take place at the FCC on Friday, the entire case stemmed from a request (pdf) submitted by the Free Press in November 2007. On the other hand, Comcast and their supporters do not agree that the FCC has the authority to impose any penalty. (You can read up on more arguments to the effect here) Personally, while I am all for unrestricted Internet access, I question if any Internet Service Provider (ISP) can maintain viability in the face of unrestricted network utilization. Will punishments force ISPs to eventually revert back to metered Internet, or simply spur greater competitiveness? Only time will tell.

For more on this debacle:
- check out this BetaNews article

Comcast testing new methods of throttling bandwidth

Paul Mah — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:00:09 -0400

In the wake of the furor over the way Comcast uses TCP reset flags to throttle BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic, the company is testing out a trio of protocol agnostic methods for controlling network congestion. The tests are being conducted in Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as a third one slated for Colorado Springs later this year. Different types of hardware and configurations will be utilized at every location, with Comcast tightlipped about the exact hardware or rules used to manage the flow of traffic.

Whatever it is, as Comcast has promised to drop its current practice of discriminating against P2P traffic by this year, it certainly will finalize on one method and get it rolled-out nation-wide before then.

For more Comcast:
- check out this The Register article

P2p

FCC set to vote against Comcast

Comcast testing new methods of throttling bandwidth