InternetComcast Testing New Network Management

Cable giant says new system would slow heaviest users, regardless of the applications they're running; still evaluating FCC order.

After receiving its formal rebuke from the Federal Communications Commission, Comcast is going to be making some changes in how it manages Internet traffic on its network. The FCC delivered its final enforcement order yesterday, giving the nation's largest cable provider 30 days to disclose its "unreasonable network management practices" and come forward with a compliance plan for how it will transition to a non-discriminatory method for directing traffic on its pipes by the end of the year. Comcast, which had announced in March that it would migrate to a "protocol-agnostic" method of network management by the end of the year, is in the advanced stages of testing a system that would slow speeds of the heaviest users for up to 20 minutes during times of peak traffic. "The approach will basically measure the amount of data throughput in your modem," Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas told InternetNews.com. "During a time when we're mirroring a state of congestion, what it would do is de-prioritize some of the data requests from the very heaviest users at the time who were contributing the most to network congestions." RELATED ARTICLES FCC Chair Pushes for Comcast Censure House Leader Blasts FCC Ahead of Comcast Vote Comcast Again Denies P2P Throttling Time Warner to Test Usage-Based Broadband Pricing For more stories on this topic: The impending changes follow the FCC's Aug. 1 ruling determining that Comcast... [ Read more on www.internetnews.com ]

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