Comcast Defends Internet Practices
Found on Wired on Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Comcast Corp. told the Federal Communications Commission in formal comments Tuesday that hampering some file-sharing by its subscribers was a justifiable way to keep Web traffic flowing for everyone.
Comcast says it must curb some file-sharing traffic because some subscribers would otherwise hog the cables with their uploads and slow traffic in their neighborhood.
The company - the country's second-largest Internet service provider - also said it was justified in using "reset" packets to break off communications between two computers.
Comcast sometimes inserts these packets in the data stream to kill a file-sharing session. The move "fools" each computer into believing the other computer wants to end the connection.
Of course, play the "blame P2P" card. Comcast should just admit that it's selling more bandwith than it can provide. If a bunch of users who saturate the bandwith they pay for(!), then your business idea is flawed. Comcast relied on the opinion that users will never make full use of the bandwith they give them. Comcast wants users to pay for the advertised bandwith/flatrate and cut them off if they actually do use it to the fullest.