Comcast Partners with BitTorrent Inc., Lifting Throttles
Mar 27, 2008 Blogging, Geeky, Tech News
Comcast, a national broadband provider, was repeatedly criticized for slowing down BitTorrent traffic by means of packet shaping. Recently, they agreed to lift throttles placed on all users who download Torrents and only limit access to users who consume the most bandwidth. This is not just a step for downloaders, but a step to defend Net Neutrality.
Kudos, Comcast!
I find this is a much more reasonable network management policy, and has received a lot of support from the Torrent community. Additionally, this is a great way that Comcast can possibly monetize legalized downloads from BitTorrent Inc for subscribers. Personally, I wouldn’t mind paying $5 more monthly for unlimited access to BitTorrent’s archive, assuming top-notch speeds.
Comcasters! Please try downloading some Torrents and confirm if you can indeed download at “normal” speed.
UPDATE 4/1 — As stated in the comments, Torrent download speeds are up and working well for Comcast users. This was from a user with the *.az.comcast.net hostname.
Tags: Comcast, consumer advocacy, Downloading, internet
March 31st, 2008 at 3:27 PM
Yeah, I downloaded some uh… linux distros… and got pretty good speeds.
April 1st, 2008 at 7:19 PM
Thanks, JW!
Glad to hear that torrents are working for Comcast users, just as noted in a press release.
~Joe
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:52 AM
This is part of something else still in the works. If anyone thinks that Comcast would ever do anything for the benefit of its customers, they need to share some of whatever they’re smoking with me. I want to go to that magic world too.
The only thing Comcast has ever or will ever care about is overselling bandwidth to grandmothers who only ever check their email once a month.
My guess is that this is part of some sort of pre-emptive strategy to corner some stupid segment of the market for digital distribution or HD streaming.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:58 AM
[...] Joe wrote an interesting post today on Comcast Partners with BitTorrent Inc., Lifting ThrottlesHere’s a quick excerptComcast, a national broadband provider, was repeatedly criticized for slowing down BitTorrent traffic by means of packet shaping. Recently, they agreed to lift throttles placed on all users who download Torrents and only limit access to … [...]
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:29 PM
[...] larger geographic regions. If you recall, Comcast attempted to scurry around federal regulators by lifting the throttles and will be partnering with BitTorrent [...]