Tuesday, August 26, 2008

FCC Orders Comcast to End Discriminatory Traffic Management

The U.S. FCC required Comcast to end its traffic management practices that discriminated against peer-to-peer traffic and BitTorrent in particular. The company has 30 days to:
  • Disclose the details of its discriminatory traffic management practices to the Commission
  • Submit a compliance plan describing how it intends to stop these discriminatory management practices by the end of the year
  • Disclose to customers and the Commission the traffic management practices that will replace current practices
This is an important aspect of the Net Neutrality argument. I believe that the crux of this issue is that broadband operators must take an even handed approach to how they manage traffic. They should not use these techniques to play favorites or to improve their own market position.

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