Comcast claims it wants to make nice with BitTorrent [Bump]

After fighting to keep file sharing off of their network, Comcast is making a public about face and working with BitTorrent. While it could be largely a PR move, use of the technology could have benificial uses in Comcast’s content distribution.

Comcast Corp. says it will stop targeting BitTorrent on the Internet, according to an announcement to be made today.

Seeking to defuse tensions in a government investigation, Comcast says it will halt its practice of interfering only with BitTorrent file-sharing programs when the Internet congests and slows speeds for everyone.

The Philadelphia cable company also will boost broadband capacity to make it easier to transmit online video and other rich media, it says. At times, BitTorrent accounts for 50 percent of the traffic on the Internet, with 40 million to 45 million users around the globe.

As part of the agreement, BitTorrent Inc., based in San Francisco, will make its free software more efficient and will make sure software developers learn of those efficiencies. (Philly.com)

Comcast’s actions rarely live up to the extent of their PR spin. Until we see evidence that real action has been taken, I’m calling this a ploy to get the FCC dogs off their trail. Please prove me wrong Comcast!

[Dr. Dog] Not only do I concur, but doubly so. I figure somebody on the tech side got to management and informed them that a tech battle between them and FOSS would end badly for Comcast. They probably read the first draft of the RFC proposal for the next iteration of P2P and realized the jig was up. Comcast would have faced a continual escalating ports royal with equipment upgrades with no end to the capital drain.

It will be interesting to see if the stick to this proposal. Still does not solve their long term problem with TVoIP. That is a bigger fish that will require attention. And as it is right now I don’t see how they can turn those folks off. It would seem to be a legitimise use of bandwidth. Just like channel 276 on their own service.