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Virgin Media Denies BitTorrent Throttling Report

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

Virgin Media, the British internet service provider that just announced a 50 megabits per second broadband service, is denying a Tuesday published report that it plans to throttle BitTorrent traffic as a congestion management plan.

"It's not true," Asam Ahmad, a company spokesman, said in telephone interview from London. "There are no changes planned in our traffic management policy."

Virgin's stated policygenerally limits the speeds of its heaviest data users during certain times of the day.

The Register reported Tuesdaythat Neil Berkett, the company's CEO, said the throttling was to come in mid-2009. The Register's story did not quote Berkett directly. But the story had some legs, and was picked up by our sister blog, Epicenter, and ZDNet.

Unlike in the United States, where regulators dinged Comcastfor throttling BitTorrent data, there appears to be little, if any, regulatory opposition to application throttling in the United Kingdom.

BitTorrentis the application of choice for the online pirating of movies, software and games. It has legitimate uses as well, allowing for the easy transfer of large files, including motion pictures rented online.

Virgin Media is one of the UK's largest providers with 12 million customers. By some estimates, BitTorrent data accounts for half the internet's traffic.

See Also:

• Comcast Ordered to Allow Free Flow of File Sharing Traffic ...
• Comcast Sued Over BitTorrent Blocking - UPDATED
• FCC Gets an Earful From Open-Net Defenders at Stanford
• Comcast Using Malicious Hacker Technique Against Own Customers ...
• Comcast Appeals FCC Throttling Order
• Analysis: FCC Comcast Order is Open Invitation to Internet ...
• Lawmaker Cries Foul Ahead of FCC Net-Neutrality Decision

Full post as published by Threat Level on December 16, 2008 (boomark / email).