eBuzz - Comcast's Partnership with BitTorrent

Comcast's Partnership with BitTorrent

Reporter Bob Fernandez writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Comcast Corp. says it will stop targeting BitTorrent on the Internet, according to an announcement to be made today.

Seeking to defuse tensions in a government investigation, Comcast says it will halt its practice of interfering only with BitTorrent file-sharing programs when the Internet congests and slows speeds for everyone.

The Philadelphia cable company also will boost broadband capacity to make it easier to transmit online video and other rich media, it says. At times, BitTorrent accounts for 50 percent of the traffic on the Internet, with 40 million to 45 million users around the globe. As part of the agreement, BitTorrent Inc., based in San Francisco, will make its free software more efficient and will make sure software developers learn of those efficiencies.

Kevin Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is investigating Comcast's action with BitTorrent to determine if it qualifies as "reasonable" network management. Martin scheduled a second public hearing in the investigation for April 17 at Stanford University, which ratcheted the pressure on Comcast. A prior public hearing in Boston led to headlines when it was disclosed that Comcast paid "seat-warmers" to attend the forum.

It was unclear what impact the agreement would have on the FCC investigation.

"We are thrilled with this," Ashwin Navin, cofounder and president of BitTorrent, said of the agreement. BitTorrent traffic will be treated the same as that from YouTube Inc., Google Inc. or other Internet companies, he said.

It seems to us that Comcast's job as an ISP is to deliver bandwidth, period. The report above makes it clear that there has been (and may continue to be) censorship of certain content as well. The deal announced above is with BitTorrent, Inc. and probably has nothing to do with all bittorrent traffic.

The real issue is Comcast under-investing in its infrastructure to the point where nodes meant to serve 400 residential customers are serving up to 700. Without making that investment in infrastructure, Comcast will probably continue to use underhanded tactics to save bandwidth costs on a seriously overburdened network ... to the detriment of its millions of customers.

And that's our take on the news today!

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