Net Neutrality Advocates Take Note: Cox to Prioritize Some Internet Traffic

Addressing the so-called “Net Neutrality” issue that has federal officials looking into how service providers prioritize Internet and VoIP use, the nation’s third-largest cable company today announced that it’s testing a new way to keep Web traffic from jamming.

 

Officials at Cox Communications say in a question-and-answer sheet posted here that, starting Feb. 9, Internet users in parts of Kansas and Arkansas who are using the Web for “time-sensitive” purposes – such as streaming videos, browsing or playing games online – will get priority during congestion over downloading files or performing software updates.

 

“We expect that any delay would be very brief and likely not noticeable to customers,” Cox (News - Alert) officials say. “When the congestion is no longer present, all traffic resumes its normal flow.”

 

The announcement marks the first time that Cox has entered into the Net Neutrality arena – a term that describes how ISPs prioritize Web traffic.

 

As TMCnet reported, federal officials last summer ruled that another major provider – Comcast Corp. – violated U.S. policy when it blocked Internet traffic.

 

According to The Associated Press, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to order the cable company to change how it manages its network.

 

The commission did not Comcast (News - Alert) to pay a fine, according to AP Writer John Dunbar, but said the company must cease cutting off transfers of large data files among customers who use so-called “peer-to-peer” file-sharing software.

 

In a prepared statement issued here, Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice said the company was disappointed in the FCC’s (News - Alert) “divided conclusion, because we believe that our network management choices were reasonable, wholly consistent with industry practices and that we did not block access to Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services.”

 

Fitzmaurice added, “We also believe that the Commission’s order raises significant due process concerns and a variety of substantive legal questions.  We are considering all our legal options and are disappointed that the commission rejected our attempts to settle this issue without further delays.”

 

That ruling followed reports from Internet users and independent studies that Comcast, and fellow U.S. cable broadband provider Cox, had slowed down BitTorrent (News - Alert) traffic during peak times.

 

That’s according to a study from Germany-based Max Planck Institute for Software Systems that used more than 8,000 nodes worldwide to test for BitTorrent blocking, according to a New York Times article published in May.

 

Cox was interfering with 100 percent of the BitTorrent traffic at 1 a.m., 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., according to the tests. The study also found that Comcast interrupted at least 30 percent of BitTorrent upload attempts around the clock.

 

More recently, as TMCnet reported, the FCC began questioning a practice from Comcast that apparently subjects competitors’ VoIP calls to quality disruption while preserving its own digital voice service.

 

In a letter to Comcast, FCC officials were critical of a specific offshoot of the company’s plan to de-prioritize a user’s connection if that user is causing congestion. Since the FCC ruled against Comcast several months ago for violating U.S. policy when it blocked Internet traffic, the Philadelphia-based company has developed some policies on Web use.

 

The de-prioritization is one policy. Starting Oct. 1, Comcast also began limiting Internet use among subscribers to 250 gigabytes per month.

 

But another step the company took – to switch a user from the standard “Priority Best-Effort” traffic to lower quality of service “Best-Effort” traffic for 15 minutes if that user is a major reason that congestion exists – came with some fine print regarding VoIP that the FCC has brought under its magnifying glass.

 

Apparently, when filing plans with the FCC that would address its policy violations, Comcast failed to detail sufficiently why its new network management technique had an adverse affect on competing carriers’ VoIP offerings. According to the FCC, Comcast says that a consumer trying to place a VoIP call along a congested route may find that his “VoIP call sounds choppy.”

 

Dana R. Shaffer, chief of the FCC’s wireline competition bureau, told Comcast in a letter that it must provide a detailed justification for its “disparate treatment of its own VoIP service compared to that offered by other VoIP providers on its network.”

 

“In particular, please explain how Comcast Digital Voice is ‘facilities-based,’ how Comcast Digital Voice uses Comcast’s broadband facilities, and, in particular, whether (and if so, how) Comcast Digital Voice affects network congestion in a different manner than other VoIP services,” Shaffer said.

 

Cox’s new plan to prioritize traffic surely will generate discussion among so-called “net neutrality advocates” – generally speaking, those who oppose network management systems that give users no choice in how their traffic is treated.

 

Stay tuned to TMCnet for developments on this story.

 

Responding to questions about how Cox decided what traffic qualifies as “time-sensitive” and what doesn’t, the company cited its “network engineering expertise and our customers’ expectations.”

 

“Our engineers reviewed the traffic on our network, analyzed the requirements of various services and reviewed available research from third-party organizations,” Cox officials say. “We also took into account our customers’ expectations of how these services and applications should perform. For example, customers surfing the Internet expect that web pages should load quickly, so requests for web pages should process rapidly, and therefore fall into the time-sensitive category. However, uploading a file to an FTP site would be minimally affected by a brief delay, so that’s classified as non-time-sensitive. Our trial is based on these initial classifications, and it is possible we may modify our approach as we collect data from the trial.”