Comcast Changes Course To Work With BitTorrent

Since last November, Comcast's efforts to free up valuable bandwidth among its users by banning and preventing access to BitTorrent traffic has proved about as successful as the RIAA reign of terror on the realm of P2P sharing.

BitTorrent is here to stay and, judging from the outcome of the Napster drama from as far back as 1999, fighting the progression of such a popular protocol will only result in wasted dollars and an eventual service allowing legal file sharing for a nominal fee (iTunes, anyone?).

With that said, it should come as no surprise (although it does) that Comcast and BitTorrent, Inc. have today announced via press release that they will embark on a collaborative effort to more effectively address issues associated with rich media content and network capacity management.

For starters, this will mean access to BitTorrent traffic once again for Comcast customers, which is good considering that not all BitTorrent users 'overuse' the bandwidth, a fact that Comcast clearly did not take into account last year. I mean, though there are most certainly some BitTorrent users who 'abuse' bandwidth privileges, there are also those who may only have a need to retrieve a large file every now and then.

Despite the lifted ban, however, Comcast's alternative solution is not exactly the best choice either. Instead of targeting BitTorrent, Comcast will throttle those users who use the most bandwidth (does this mean tiered pricing?), though it is unsure whether this will be a temporary move or not. I cannot see the benefit of anyone staying with a service that consistently charges them higher pricing depending on bandwidth usage, when they can easily opt for an ISP with unlimited bandwidth.

As far as the mission of the new relationship between the two companies, Doug Walker, CEO of BitTorrent, stated that “BitTorrent and Comcast can serve consumers best by working together along with the broader ISP and Internet community to jointly develop more efficient networks and applications. This should prove to be a productive partnership that will provide consumers with a better Internet experience.”

“This means that we will have to rapidly reconfigure our network management systems, but the outcome will be a traffic management technique that is more appropriate for today's emerging Internet trends. We have been discussing this migration and its effects with leaders in the Internet community for the last several months, and we will refine, adjust, and publish the technique based upon feedback and initial trial results,” said Comcast Cable's Chief Technology Officer, Tony Werner.

All that is clear right now is that Comcast needs to work hard on keeping the customers that is has, as its insecurity towards BitTorrent and bandwidth abusers has surely scared off many new customers. This is also going to mean that Comcast customers need to stand up and give the company their own thoughts.