Last week, we told you about various reports that Comcast was drastically throttling BitTorrent traffic, basically preventing users in some areas from seeding torrents. Today, there's a lively discussion on Slashdot about recent reports that Comcast is kicking heavy bandwidth users off of their networks.
As Consumer Affairs notes, Comcast states in its acceptable use policy that the company reserves the right to suspend the broadband internet service of any user generating "levels of traffic sufficient to impede others' ability to send or retrieve information." However, that's as specific as Comcast gets. The company basically draws an invisible line in the sand, and if you cross it, you could be suspended for up to 12 months.
The reason there's no hard limit is because "too much" bandwidth isn't a constant. The measurement changes based on the infrastructure limitations of your particular locale, what are your neighbors are doing, and how steady and consistent your high usage periods are.
Comcast users weighing in on the issue, of course, are up in arms that the company would impose seemingly arbitrary restrictions after promising its broadband internet customers high speeds, fat pipes and bandwidth o'plenty. (It should also be noted that Slashdot's P2P-loving, Linux-downloading, movie-watching readership is the most likely sort of crowd to be pushing the upper limits of the imposed boundaries. As valid as their criticisms are, you have to factor in where they're coming from.)
The ISPs have traditionally argued that if a hard limit were to be imposed, users would ride just below that limit to get away with as much as they could without tipping the scale. And they're partially right – some people would. But if you're going to be handing out speeding tickets with such steep penalties, at least tell us what the speed limit is so we know when to back off.
For the record, I am a Comcast customer. I have contacted Comcast (specifically identifying myself as a reporter from Wired News) today about this invisible bandwidth issue and and currently awaiting a response. I'll update this post when I hear back from them. Consumer Affairs tried to get Comcast to say what the invisible bandwidth limit is. Not only would the company not reveal that information, but it also wouldn't reveal the reason for the seemingly subjective limit.
It's possible we could view this as one more argument for transparency in broadband networking. If the ISPs were to be clear to users what the limits were and even provide them with tools to track their usage, fewer users would make the ISPs angry.
Furthermore, if ISPs actively worked with P2P companies to provide a certain amount of information about how their networks are structured, the footprint those P2P services make on the ISP's infrastructure could be drastically lessened.
Industry groups already exist to bring this possible future to light. Most notable is the P4P working group, which was recently formed by the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA). The P4P folks are encouraging open collaboration between peer-to-peer networks and broadband providers. The idea is that by better understanding an ISP's network topography, P2P traffic can be routed in a way that minimizes strain on that particular network.
Sure, it sounds idealistic. But it's better than punishing users for violating limits they didn't even know existed.
