For a while now Comcast has experimented with various traffic shaping tools. Its most recent attempts have centered on BitTorrent traffic, which often commands large swathes of bandwidth as pieces of large files flit across the Internet. Some news outlets just reported that Comcast would be deploying new traffic shaping tools, but the company claims it’s waiting to complete evaluations first.

Specifically, reports surfaced on Wednesday that indicated Comcast would “. . . slow traffic for heavy users for up to 20 minutes during times of peak network use,” according to PC World.

After a massive backlash from users outraged by Comcast’s first attempt to shape BitTorrent traffic, “Net neutrality advocates called on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to take action against Comcast, and early this month, the FCC voted 3-2 to prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing specific applications on its network.”

Obviously experienced at dealing with inconvenient legislation, Comcast may be considering a traffic shaping intervention after 20 minutes because that would circumvent the FCC’s ruling. The company is also emphasizing that the bottleneck would occur regardless of the protocol eating up bandwidth.

Some digital rights advocates made comments like “It’s an interesting reflection on the claim that there is a free market for broadband. If there was competition, could you slow down your best customers?” Comcast may indeed change its attitude toward heavy users if something like Google’s white space airwaves campaign takes off. That would make service with Comcast much more optional and the company would have to create new reasons for customers to sign up and stay with them.

Right now in many places Cable and DSL are the only options, and frequently only one or the other. Broadband wireless devices have provided some relief, but they typically are restricted to 5GB of bandwidth per month.

Maybe with its next move Comcast will be more up front with its intentions and allows users to share their feedback. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

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Entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 1:05 am under Internet, Technology.

Read more entries by Matt Jansen.
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