Comcast and BitTorrent Do A Non-Deal Deal To Work Together
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
This is one of those vague non-deals that make the execs involved look good in press. Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA), which has been in in the middle of controversy about slowing down some P2P apps to supposedly manage its bandwidth capacity, has now done a deal with the commercial company BitTorrent (not to be confused with the free open-source software by the same name). The two will "collaborate on ways to run BitTorrent's technology more smoothly on Comcast's broadband network, and allow Comcast to transport video files more effectively over its own network in the future," this WSJ story says.
As part of the deal, rather than slow traffic by certain types of applicationssuch as file-sharing software or companies like BitTorrent and Vuze-- Comcast will slow traffic for those users who consume the most bandwidth, the company said. The new policy would come into effect by later this year. BitTorrent will also work to optimize its software to run more effectively over Comcast's network.
Meanwhile, BT (NYSE: BT) rival Vuze is now giving its users a tool to help figure out if their ISP is interfering with their traffic. The plug-in into its Azureus software, looks for "reset packets," the tool Comcast uses to break off some connections with computers trying to download files from Comcast subscribers, Vuze said Wednesday.
Disclaimer: Our investor Greycroft is also an investor in Vuze.
By Rafat Ali