Report: Comcast Possibly Throttling BitTorrent Traffic

What happens when you cross the Bible, Comcast, BitTorrent, and a curious news organization? According to the Associated Press, you get troubling evidence that the net is not entirely neutral. After attempting three downloads of the King James Bible via BitTorrent, the AP is reporting that Comcast could be throttling down and even blocking file-sharing traffic on its network.

Although we have our doubts about the results of such a small test (two of the three downloads failed), the AP's evidence is noteworthy:

Each PC gets a message invisible to the user that looks like it comes from the other computer, telling it to stop communicating. But neither message originated from the other computer — it comes from Comcast. If it were a telephone conversation, it would be like the operator breaking into the conversation, telling each talker in the voice of the other: "Sorry, I have to hang up. Good bye."

A Comcast spokesperson danced around the implications when confronted with the evidence. "We have a responsibility to manage our network to ensure all our customers have the best broadband experience possible," he said. "This means we use the latest technologies to manage our network to provide a quality experience for all Comcast subscribers."

We're a little bit rusty on our PR lingo, but we're pretty sure that's an admission of guilt in some capacity. The only thing missing is a larger body of empirical evidence to prove a trend. Regardless, the AP's findings are sure to reignite the fierce and largely unresolved battle over net neutrality.

[Via AP]

See Also:

• Fun With Net Neutrality Propaganda
• FCC Commissioner Discusses The Future Of Internet Distribution
• Research Proves It: Your Broadband Connection Sucks