Our friend at Cox is about to get selectively friendly toward Internet content.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CBS Interactive)Net neutrality fans, grab your chairs; I have some rocking news.
Cox Communications, the third-largest cable Internet provider in the U.S., announced Tuesday that starting February, it will begin testing a new method of managing traffic on its high-speed Internet network in Kansas and Arkansas.
This means during the times the network is congested the company will--to put it bluntly--discriminate between Internet content and regulate the bandwidth accordingly.
The company divides Internet traffic into two categories: time-sensitive and nontime-sensitive, with the former taking the priority during the congested hours.
Here's the company's break-down of these two categories:
The time sensitive category includes:
- Web (Web surfing, including web-based e-mail and chat embedded in Web pages)
- VoIP (Voice over IP, telephone calls made over the Internet)
- IM (Instant messages, including related voice and Webcam traffic)
- Streaming (Web-based audio and video programs)
- Games (Online interactive games)
- Tunneling & Remote Connectivity (VPN-type services for telecommuting)
- Other (Any service not categorized into another area)
The nontime-sensitive category includes:
- File Access (Bulk transfers of data such as FTP)
- Network Storage (Bulk transfers of data for storage)
- P2P (Peer to peer protocols)
- Software Updates (Managed updates, such as operating system updates)
- Usenet (Newsgroup related)
Cox says the new congestion management plan only kicks in when congestion levels reach a certain high. It also insists the company will ensure that its customers continue to have a good online experience.
Personally, I don't really mind this, because I live in California and games are categorized as time-sensitive. For those who are more concerned, you can learn more about Cox's congestion management plan here.
Cox is the latest Internet service provider to have been found blocking peer-to-peer traffic on its network.
The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems released a survey Thursday showing that 54 percent of Cox subscribers reported having their connections blocked when they tried to share files over the Internet. Comcast has been castigated for a similar practice, but apparently it wasn't the only company engaging in such action, according to the Associated Press.
The blocked connections occurred when Cox subscribers used BitTorrent to download or upload files, according to the results of the survey. Cox has acknowledged a practice called "protocol filtering," but says that's not the equivalent of creating different standards for handling content traveling across its networks.
The survey results will provide another log for the fire started by Net neutrality activists pushing for rules that would prohibit ISPs from enacting different standards for different types of content. The AP said the Federal Communications Commission would look into the matter "expeditiously."
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