Comcast Proposes 'P2P Bill Of Rights'

Operator, Pando Networks To Develop Best-Practices Framework With Others

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 4/15/2008 1:48:00 PM

Comcast is looking to further position itself as proactively—and responsibly—addressing the issue of managing peer-to-peer traffic that traverses its network, announcing Tuesday it will lead an industry-wide effort to create a “P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” for users and Internet service providers.

The cable operator and peer-to-peer technology firm Pando Networks said they will collaborate with industry experts, other ISPs and P2P companies, content providers and others to create a framework “to clarify what choices and controls consumers should have” when using P2P applications and what processes and practices ISPs should use to manage P2P applications running on their networks.

In the last several months, Comcast was caught off guard by the outcry over its practice of throttling back peer-to-peer traffic, which culminated in a pending Federal Communications Commission investigation and at least two subscriber lawsuits. Last month the operator announced it would work with BitTorrent and others to make P2P run more efficiently on its network.

The FCC has scheduled a hearing April 17 at Stanford University on network-management practices of Internet service providers, following its meeting on the topic at Harvard Law School last month during which Comcast was grilled over its P2P policies.

Comcast chief technology officer Tony Werner said the proposed “bill of rights and responsibilities,” to be released later this year, is in the best interest of service providers, peer-to-peer companies and consumers.

“By having this framework in place, we will help P2P companies, ISPs and content owners find common ground to support consumers who want to use P2P applications to deliver legal content,” Werner said, in a statement.

In addition, Comcast said it plans to conduct a test of Pando’s “network-aware” P2P technology to capture and analyze the data flow associated with downloading a file using Pando’s P2P application. Pando recently claimed that a test spanning 1 million broadband users showed its technology sped up peer-to-peer file transfers 235% on cable networks in the United States.

Comcast said the Pando test will provide additional data to help it migrate to a “protocol-agnostic network management technique” by the end of this year.

National Cable & Telecommunications Association CEO Kyle McSlarrow weighed in later with a statement: "We applaud today's announcement by Comcast and Pando Networks, which is further evidence that private sector collaboration, not government intervention, is the most appropriate way to address complicated technological issues. NCTA stands ready to support this important effort and we encourage the participation of other industry participants."