Comcast has agreed to stop the traffic shaping of BitTorrent connections and work with the company to find common ground on rich media distribution and network capacity management. BitTorrent president Ashwin Navin commented to us via email about the change in relationship with Comcast:
We've been in discussions with Comcast for over 2 years about how to re-architect their network in order to optimize for media delivery. The recent press about network management (and the FCC hearing on the matter) was a catalyst to announce our previous activities. We are particularly enthusiastic about Comcast's commitment to make their network management protocol agnostic (neutral to all applications) as well as their efforts to upgrade broadband speeds for both downstream AND upstream traffic. We will optimize our application to take advantage of their network upgrades and share those techniques with the broader Internet community (via standards bodies like the IETF, for example).BitTorrent users on Comcast should be "While we think there were other management techniques that could have been deployed, we understand why Comcast and other ISPs adopted the approach that they did initially.....we are pleased that Comcast understands these changing traffic patterns and wants to collaborate with us to migrate to techniques that the Internet community will find to be more transparent," said Eric Klinker, BitTorrent's Chief Technology Officer. Comcast initially disputed customer reports that the broadband provider fiddled with BitTorrent connections. But a subsequent investigation found they were indeed doing that. Blogosphere drama ensued, and reached all the way to the FCC, which took an interest in the kerfuffle. As Possible translation? Here comes the usage meter. Also, "The issue of Net Neutrality is bigger than Comcast and BitTorrent. This agreement does nothing to protect the many other peer-to-peer companies from blocking, nor does it protect future innovative applications and services. Finally, it does nothing to prevent other phone and cable companies from blocking. Innovators should not have to negotiate side deals with phone and cable companies to operate without discrimination. The Internet has always been a level playing field, and we need to keep it that way."
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