WE'VE SEEN well informed speculation by industry insiders that Comcast is not the only cable broadband provider engaged in blocking Peer-to-Peer (P2P) uploads as a "network management" tactic to hold down its bandwidth costs and so increase profits.

Other cable broadband vendors are rumoured to also use Sandvine equipment, which is reportedly what Comcast uses to surreptitiously shut down P2P uploads on its network. Those other providers are said to include TimeWarner and Adelphia, and perhaps more.

If so, they might also end up facing possible future class-action lawsuits by customers or an organisation acting in the public interest, which was mentioned as a likely development at a Cnet bog yesterday.

In that account, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others have tested and confirmed that Comcast is stealthily blocking some P2P uploads. Reportedly it's not only BitTorrent traffic that's affected, but also Gnutella and Lotus Notes, as well as possibly other P2P applications that use similar protocols.

So far, Comcast's PR department is sticking to their story that it doesn't block access to any websites or applications, including P2P services, but merely uses the latest technologies to manage its network. However, a Comcast Internet executive who was interviewed by Cnet was described as evasive and refused to deny that it spoofs P2P session shutdown packets.

A Comcast engineer reportedly told another source that "most users wouldn't even be able to detect the traffic-shaping activities they use without special equipment and training."

Apparently, Comcast -- and maybe other cable ISPs -- think that what their customers don't know, or might suspect but can't prove, won't hurt them... the cable ISPs, that is. They might be proven wrong.

Fred von Lohmann, an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) attorney, said " based on [our] own testing, as well as what has been reported, it seems clear that Comcast's techniques are bad for its customers and bad for innovation generally."

As to the effectiveness of the practice and the harm it might cause, he said: "It's as though they are throwing a spanner in the works of the Internet, hoping that this will somehow reduce bandwidth usage overall."

There's some thought that such heavy handed network "management" might be unlawful. While the EFF is still studying the matter for now, von Lohmann said it has "already been contacted by attorneys who are considering legal action against Comcast."

Perhaps those lawyers should add TimeWarner and Adelphia, and perhaps other cable broadband providers, to their list of potential class action defendants. µ

L'INQ
Cnet