UK Internet service provider Virgin Media plans on introducing new technology to specifically monitor and limit BitTorrent traffic next year, a reversal of its support for net neutrality.
Details and the exact timing of Virgin Media's decision to incorporate application-based restrictions are still being worked out. Currently, the ISP only reduces the speed of the heaviest users at peak evening times. But Virgin Media's CEO Neil Berkett (who once called net neutrality "a load of bollocks") told The Register about the decision saying only that it will come into force around the middle of next year. A comment from an official spokesman didn’t offer much more information:
Virgin Media, in a telephone interview with our sister blog, Threat Level, disputed the report and said no BitTorrent throttling was on the horizon.
Virgin Media issued a statement earlier this year after purchasing deep packet inspection technology used to monitor applications in which it said it " does not discriminate internet traffic by application and we have no plans to do so."
In the U.S., Comcast was recently ordered by the FCC to stop its controversial practice of throttling P2P file sharing traffic, which it originally denied and eventually discolsed in September.
