Comcast denies shaping BitTorrent traffic
Does Comcast read TheGeekery? Wow, that would suck for us due to all the Comcast bashing we do here, but for some reason we still pay for their service. On Tuesday Comcast officially denied rumors the they were filtering BitTorrent traffic running over their network.
Broadband providers have also not been big fans of BitTorrent because the use of the peer-to-peer protocol can clog networks with huge files. The blog TorrentFreak claims that several Internet Service Providers have been “throttling” or limiting BitTorrent traffic on their networks for the past two years. And last week, the blog accused Comcast of going even further to limit the use of BitTorrent on its network.
The blog claimed that some Comcast users had noticed that their BitTorrent transfers were being cut off and that they experienced a significant decrease in download speeds.
Over the past few days, these claims have been widely circulated throughout the Web. CNET news claims they spoke to Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas earlier today, “he flat-out denied that the company was filtering or “shaping” any traffic on its network. He said the company doesn’t actively look at the applications or content that its customers download over the network. But Comcast does reserve the right to cut off service to customers who abuse the network by using too much bandwidth.”
As CNET was pressing the issue they asked some serious questions that I think a lot of us would like to know. Obviously he danced a little bit around the questions, but overall answered pretty straight.
“So what constitutes “too much” bandwidth? Douglas didn’t specify exact figures, but he gave a few examples that would likely get subscribers into trouble. For example, someone who sends more than 13 million e-mails a month, which breaks down to about 430,000 e-mails a day or 18,000 e-mails an hour, would likely get a letter or phone call from Comcast about excessive use. Sending roughly 250,000 photos or downloading more than 30,000 songs a month might also raise an eyebrow at Comcast, he said.”
“More than 99.99 percent of our customers use the residential high-speed Internet service as intended, which includes downloading and sharing video, photos and other rich media,” he said. “But Comcast has a responsibility to provide these customers with a superior experience, and to address any excessive or abusive activities usage issues that may adversely impact that experience.”
In the rare instances the company has to enforce its policy, Douglas said that Comcast contacts subscribers to work out the issue. But he firmly reiterated that the company doesn’t filter or throttle back traffic.
I dont have really that much to say about this one. TorrentFreak has proven its legitimise in the past. So who do we believe? I would like to know all of your thoughts on this.