Comcast : once an interferer…

Comcast just can’t stay away from trouble. Research from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems focused on how Comcast (as well as Cox and StarHub) behaves in terms of traffic interference, Free-times.com reports. The study revealed that 62 %t of 1,279 Comcast connections tested were blocked, as a Bloomberg.com article on the study describes. Comcast responded in a manner it has already accustomed us to: “We manage peer-to-peer traffic in a limited manner to minimize network congestion.”

However, Comcast is not facing alone these accusations – it seems that Cox Communications has been also caught with its hands in the honey jar as German's Max Planck Institute for Software Systems proved. Over 8,000 Internet users across the world took part in this research which concluded that Comcast, Cox and Singapore's StarHub have been blocking file-sharing connections.

Comcast was already under investigation by Federal Communications Commission for previous accusations of file-sharing traffic interference.

Ben Scott, policy director at Free Press,a fervent promoter of democratic media policies emphasized the need for drastic measures "This research proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that consumers, Congress and the FCC must urgently pursue the complaints against network providers. Now is the time to send a clear signal to the market that blocking consumers' access to the lawful Internet content of their choice is out of bounds."