Date: 03-31-2008
Cable and Internet service provider Comcast and file-sharing service BitTorrent announced today that they will work together to come up with better ways to share large files over the Internet. Comcast will slow traffic for those users who consume the most bandwidth, company sources said. BitTorrent, meanwhile, is chalking out ways to improve its software so that it will run more effectively over Comcast’s network. Both companies are trying to reinvent themselves, observers noted, in the wake of network traffic problems caused by file-sharing bandwidth demands. “We will have to rapidly reconfigure our network management systems, but the outcome will be a traffic management technique that is more appropriate for today’s emerging Internet trends,” said Tony Werner, Comcast Cable’s chief technology officer. BitTorrent also acknowledged the need for management of network traffic during periods of peak congestion on the part of ISPs.
