Comcast’s New Bandwidth Black List: You Use, You Lose

nyTimes.com: Some Comcast customers who actively download software and video files may soon find one set of unexplained delays replaced with a different sort of equally cryptic slowdowns.

Comcast is starting to test new approaches to protecting its network from what it describes as congestion caused by a handful of customers who use far far more bandwidth than everyone else. Until now, Comcast has been using devices that interfered with the BitTorrent protocol—the most common method for downloading large files from computers of other users. BitTorrent is often used by people exchanging pornography and illegal copies of movies, but creators of video and software also choose to use BitTorrent as an inexpensive way to distribute their creations.

It will test new devices that will keep track of Comcast users and assemble a blacklist of heavy users. Those on the blacklist will find that all of their online activities may slow down at peak times: from downloading movies to checking e-mail.

For now, these restrictions are just as mysterious as the secret blocking of BitTorrent. Charlie Douglas, a Comcast spokesman, said the company would not disclose what sort of usage it takes to get on the black list, how long someone stays on it and if there is any way to get off. Most significantly, Comcast won’t even tell users if they are on the black list.

Comcast, which was criticized for not being forthright about its restrictions on BitTorrent, has promised to find a new approach that will block heavy users of bandwidth regardless of what content or communication protocol they are using.

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