I wrote a feature story for Wired News this week about how file trading continues to strain the bandwidth limitations of residential broadband networks. It's called "P2P-2-ISP Peace Pipe Could Ease Bandwidth Crunch" and it's on the front door of Wired.com right now. It paints a mostly positive picture of the present climate, which sees internet service providers and P2P companies finally beginning to work together to ensure that file trading happens in the most economic and efficient way possible -- and doesn't clog anyone's pipes.
In the course of the research conducted by myself and Wired News editor Dylan Tweney, we talked to Comcast about this issue. I also brought up the recent allegations (which we're reported here on Compiler, and which were cited in the article) that Comcast is shaping traffic, denying off-network BitTorrent connections and penalizing subscribers who exceed an arbitrarily-set monthly download limit.
On Wednesday, Comcast declined to comment on the allegations or the story. Now that the story has run, however, Comcast has issued a response:
So there you have it. Comcast says it doesn't block access to any applications, including BitTorrent, and it doesn't alter the speed of your internet connection. The statement says nothing about the issue of invisible bandwidth limits, however.
