The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has unveiled an open source tool designed to detect the throttling of your Internet connection. This could come in very handy for Comcast customers who want to make sure Comcast follows the order recently given to it by the FCC, to halt P2P throttling.
Late Friday I received an emailed press release from Jen Howard of Free Press. You may recall that last year, both the AP and Electronic Frontier Foundation confirmed through tests that Comcast was throttling P2P communication, which eventually led to a months-long FCC investigation, launched in response to filings by Free Press and members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition.
Monday at an FCC hearing held at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh entitled "Broadband and the Digital Future," AT&T Senior Federal Regulatory Vice President Robert Quinn spoke and outlined a plan for instituting tiered service, starting in October. But wait, it's not what you're thinking!
Companies like Comcast and Sympatico have been accused of - or even admitted - throttling of P2P applications. It even earned Comcast Congressional scrutiny and an FCC hearing. To make matters worse, ATT and Time-Warner Cable are experimenting with metered usage, and Comcast is trying out throttling all traffic - not just P2P - to high-usage customers. What's a user to do if he suspects throttling? Google is working on an answer.
Wait, wait, is this the same Comcast that has been throttling P2P traffic of late? It is? Hmmm.
Today in a joint press release Comcast and BitTorrent announced they are now working together. Yes, I know it's hard to believe.
