Comcast outlines new broadband policy

Comcast will eliminate limits on certain protocols and instead limit access on bandwidth usage

US cable provider Comcast has presented its long-term solution for managing broadband traffic.

The new system is designed to put to bed a minor scandal that erupted late last year when it was found that Comcast had deliberately limited traffic for certain applications.

Comcast maintained that it was only trying to prevent users from occupying large chunks of bandwidth with the use of peer-to-peer services, thereby slowing traffic for all users.

However, the move came under fire from privacy advocates and led to intervention from the US Federal Communications Commission.

Rather than limit traffic based on certain protocols, Comcast's new system will prioritise access based on how much bandwidth a user is occupying.

The aim of the plan is to thwart so-called 'bandwidth hogs' without singling out certain applications or protocols.

Comcast said that traffic will be analysed every 15 minutes. Users found to be occupying large amounts of bandwidth will be placed at a lower priority for network access behind those with less bandwidth-intensive traffic.

The intended result is slower speeds for high-bandwidth services such as peer-to-peer applications, but improved speeds for normal internet tasks such as viewing web pages, during peak times.

The new system will not replace or be related to the company's earlier instalment of bandwidth caps, which limited a user's data intake to 250GB per month.

Comcast's move earned praise from some of its former critics. The Electronic Frontier Foundation hailed the plan as an improvement over the previous system.

"The new system appears to be a reasonable attempt at sharing limited bandwidth among groups of users," wrote EFF staff technologist Peter Eckersley.

"Comcast's objective here is still largely to prioritise non-peer-to-peer traffic above peer-to-peer traffic. But the criterion they use is the amount of data a cable modem sends during each 15 minute period, which is a much fairer rule than examining the traffic protocol."