Comcast, BitTorrent pact

Company to treat all traffic equally

By WILLIAM TRIPLETT

Hoping to stave off any threat of government intervention, Comcast announced an agreement with a leading peer-to-peer software company to collaborate on developing non-discriminatory ways for the cabler's broadband service to manage pipe-clogging traffic on the Web.

Joint announcement from Comcast and BitTorrent -- which had complained last year to the Federal Communications Commission that Comcast was unfairly slowing down its bandwidth-heavy traffic -- stressed an effort not only to work together but also to reach out and include other technology companies and ISPs.

Though Comcast had argued it was only doing what was necessary to make sure that other subscribers' traffic didn't suffer, the company said that as part of the agreement it will eventually replace its current system with one "that will be a traffic management technique that is more appropriate for today's emerging Internet trends," the announcement said. Comcast engineers are working to develop the new system.

In turn, BitTorrent said it will improve the efficiency of its file-sharing application.

"Both BitTorrent and Comcast expressed the view that these technical issues can be worked out through private business discussions without the need for government intervention," the announcement said.

The FCC has opened an inquiry into the BitTorrent complaint against Comcast, which caused a flare-up in the ongoing debate over Net neutrality -- the proposition that government must somehow guarantee that all Internet traffic is treated similarly and fairly.

Net neutrality proponents spotlighted the 2007 incident as proof of the need for a governmental guarantee; opponents said that the increasingly burdened broadband pipes (a result primarily of video files) require ISPs to manage congestion so that other subscribers don't experience degraded service because of a few bandwidth hogs.

In the agreement, BitTorrent acknowledged that ISPs do have to manage congestion, and Comcast, referring to the new management system it will develop, promised to "migrate by year-end 2008 to a capacity management technique that is protocol agnostic," meaning no particular application would ever be singled out.

Net neutrality opponents, as well as free-marketeers, hailed the agreement as evidence that marketplace dynamics -- not governmental interventions -- were the answer to such problems. But some activist groups dismissed the ultimate impact the agreement might have.

"These talks are the direct result of public pressure -- and the threat of FCC action -- against Comcast," said Marvin Ammori, general counsel of Free Press. "But with Comcast's history of broken promises and record of deception, we can't just take their word that the Internet is now in safe hands."

"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," Ammori added.

FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin, who has been hammering the cable industry to offer a la carte subscriptions, interpreted the agreement as a confession from Comcast that it had discriminated against BitTorrent.

"I am pleased that Comcast has reversed course and agreed that it is not a reasonable network management practice to arbitrarily block certain applications on its network," Martin said in a statement. "I also commend the company for admitting publicly that it was engaging in the practice and now engaging in a dialog with BitTorrent."

"I am concerned, though, that Comcast has not made clear when they will stop this discriminatory practice," Martin continued. "It appears this practice will continue throughout the country until the end of the year and in some markets, even longer."

Comcast denied any such admissions, replying: "To be clear, Comcast does not block any websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services."