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Plans to test out new bandwidth-management system in their Kansas and Arkansas markets that will "momentarily" delay "non-time-sensitive" Internet applications. Beginning next month, Cox Communications, this country's third-largest ISP, has announced plans to test out a new bandwidth-management system in its Kansas and Arkansas markets that will categorize traffic into time-sensitive and non-time-sensitive traffic categories, throttling the latter in order to "provide customers the best possible Internet experience" for its subscribers. "During the occasional times the network is congested, this new technology automatically ensures that all time-sensitive Internet traffic -- such as Web pages, voice calls, streaming videos and gaming - moves without delay," Cox said. "Less time-sensitive traffic, such as file uploads, P2P and Usenet newsgroups, may be delayed momentarily - but only when the local network is congested." Cox's move comes after industry leader Comcast was reprimanded last year by the FCC for singling out P2P applications like BitTorrent during peak times of network congestion. Facing political and consumer pressure, Comcast has since moved to adopt a protocol-agnostic "Fair Share" approach, throttles heavy bandwidth users for a 15-minute period. Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, a consumer-rights lobbying group, criticizes the plan: The lesson we learned from the Comcast case is that we must be skeptical of any practice that comes between users and the Internet. The information provided by Cox gives little indication about how its new practices will impact Internet users, or if they comply with the FCC's Internet Policy Statement. Cox customers will certainly want to know more about how the company is interfering with their Internet traffic and what criteria it uses to discriminate. As a general rule, we're concerned about any cable or phone company picking winners and losers online. These kinds of practices cut against the fundamental neutrality of the open Internet. We urge the FCC to subject this practice to close scrutiny and call on Cox to provide its customers with more technical details about exactly what it's doing.Below is a break-down of the time-sensitivity of the various types of traffic that travel the Cox network. Any traffic that is not specifically classified will be treated as time-sensitive. Time SensitiveWeb (Web surfing, including web-based email and chat embedded in web pages) VoIP (Voice over IP, telephone calls made over the Internet)Email 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)Non-Time SensitiveFile 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)Perhaps with President Obama having previously stated that he's a proponent of network neutrality ISPs like will face renewed pressure from the FCC and his administration.
'customer disobedience'
