14 DAY TRIAL // Following the last week's reports that Comcast, the US second largest ISP, blocks the access to BitTorrent downloads and other file sharing application, the company's representatives decided to go out and clarify the issue. According to the New York Times, a written statement signed by Comcast states that the ISP has never restricted the access to BitTorrent or other peer-to-peer technologies and will never do such a thing because it tries to provide only high-quality Internet services to the customers.
"Comcast does not block access to any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services like BitTorrent. We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that they can continue to enjoy these applications," it was mentioned in the statement according to the source mentioned above.
However, a Comcast executive who talked with the folks at the New York Times admitted the Internet Service Provider might decide to delay or slow down the file downloads because they are affecting others' Internet experience. What's interesting is that the consumers who download files from BitTorrent or other peer-to-peer software solutions represent only a small percentage of the total number of Comcast clients but they manage to use a huge amount of bandwidth.
"The company uses data management technologies to conserve bandwidth and allow customers to experience the Internet without delays. As part of that management process, he said, the company occasionally - but not always - delays some peer-to-peer file transfers that eat into Internet speeds for other users on the network," the New York Times editors wrote in the article.
BitTorrent and the peer-to-peer applications are surely the most popular ways to download files on the Internet, some of them being used even to distribute pirated content. It's a well-known fact that lots of copyright holders struggled to shut down pirated BitTorrent websites due to infringing content appearing on the pages.