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Comcast and Vonage in Internet-Traffic Pact

Posted on: Wednesday, 9 July 2008, 12:00 CDT

Comcast Corp. today announced an agreement with Vonage Holdings Corp., the big Internet phone service provider, to develop ways to manage Internet traffic without damaging each other's businesses.

There will no change in the billing rates for customers of either company, but Vonage officials believe that this will ensure high-quality Internet phone service for their customers.

The agreement comes as FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is considering fines or some other enforcement action against Comcast because of its once-secret actions to target heavy users of BitTorrent Inc.'s file-sharing software.

Some believe that Martin could act as early as August on the Comcast complaint.

The Philadelphia-based cable giant previously announced cooperation deals with BitTorrent and Pando Networks to show Martin and the FCC that the problem of managing the Internet could be solved with business arrangements and without new regulations.

Comcast also has said it would not target BitTorrent users.

BitTorrent and others have said Comcast interfered with BitTorrent because it viewed the company's online video streaming technology as a competitive threat to Comcast's pay-TV service.

Comcast denied that it actions were motivated by competitive reasons, saying the BitTorrent users hog Internet bandwidth.

In a similar vein, Comcast competes with Vonage for Internet phone customers. But many times those Vonage phone customers are routed over Comcast's Internet connections, leading some to speculate that Comcast could interrupt the Vonage phone traffic and make it less reliable when compared with Comcast's phone service.

"This agreement helps Vonage to ensure that customers have the best possible Internet experience," said Louis Mamakos, Vonage chief technology officer. "Although we're competitors with Comcast, this understanding helps our two companies work together to balance the needs of network management with consumers' ability to freely access the services, applications and content of their choice."

Critics have pressed the Federal Communications Commission to sanction Comcast to send a message to other Internet operators.

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

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