AT&T to FCC: ‘We Don’t Throttle BitTorrent’

Responds to recent findings that reset packets are interfering with BitTorrent connections in a presumptive effort to manage network traffic

Earlier this week I reported how Azureus had finally made the results of its BitTorrent throttling plugin available. Users of the Azureus BitTorrent client were asked to install a simple plug-in in order to help it “…gather information about potential interference with your Internet traffic.” Specifically, Azureus wanted to collect data showing just how widespread the practice of BitTorrent throttling may or may not be be amongst the world’s ISPs.

Armed with over 1,000,000 hours of data from more than 8,000 users, the data suggested that AT&T was indeed interrupting BitTorrent connections with a reset (RST) message. In other words, it has been throttling BitTorrent.

If you remove all of the extra Comcast networks and ISPs AT&T would have the 13th highest median reset rate worldwide(25th with them included).

In response to the findings AT&T filed comments with the FCC yesterday denying that it in any way throttled BitTorrent traffic using RST packets.

“AT&T does not use ‘false reset messages’ to manage its network,” Kalmanek said in the letter.

He suggested that RST packets can sometimes occur naturally, i.e. due to things like “…outages, attacks, reconfiguration or overall trends i internet usage.”

“AT&T does not use ‘false reset messages’ to manage its network,” Kalmanek continued.

AT&T may actually be telling the truth here, for Azureus itself even concludes i its report that “…more investigation is required to determine whether these resets are happening in the ordinary course of business or whether they represent the kind of throttling practices which target specific applications and/or protocols, harming the consumer experience and stifling innovation.” In other words, the data is preliminary and simply suggests that more research is required to make any definitive conclusions.

“Given that Vuze itself has recognized these problems…we believe that Vuze should not have published these misleading measurements, nor filed them with the FCC,” he wrote, suggesting that industry forums like the Distributed Computing Industry Association would provide a better means for addressing such questions.

Until more research is conducted it will be for AT&T customers to decide for themselves. They are the ones who will be able to truly tell whether or not their BitTorrent connections are being throttled and something tells me they are.

[Via MCN]