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Cable blocking P2P? How will it impact VoIP?

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The asymetric nature of most consumer broadband pipes, where providers limit upstream bandwidth, has caused problems for P2P file sharing. There is speculation that some operators are actually specifically blocking P2P. More recently, folks have begun to wonder whether they may do something to disrupt VoIP (SIP or Skype), in order to sell their own VoIP services.

Here in Mass, Our local cable company is putting caps on the kazaa downloads and uploads using this type of filter but because it only effects that application, web browsing and email are totally unaffected.

So will the ISPs get away with this? Will we let ISPs tell us which applications are approved and which are not? Is this the kind of Internet we want to leave for our children?

2 comments for “Cable blocking P2P? How will it impact VoIP?”

  1. This has been a problem brewing for a while. The key, often enough, is not to be the big kid on the block. Napster was at one time and they got nailed. Now the same is true with Kazaa.

    However, there are plenty of other P2P services out there. Using ones not currently on the radar will usually save you from artificial usage limitations. The annoying thing is that if you never use the largest one, you’ll never have the largest audience.

    Luckily, there are Meta P2P services on the way. One is mentioned on my blog .. see the link above or go to www.soundbag.com/leblog (sorry, the other link is too long to type … okay, with cut and paste that’s stupid .. here it is http://developer.berlios.de/cvs/?group_id=1509)

    Jim

  2. In regards to this part of the post – More recently, folks have begun to wonder whether they may do something to disrupt VoIP (SIP or Skype), in order to sell their own VoIP services.

    Although I am more of an end user, than a tech person, here is something interesting in this regard which I have from a reliable source.

    In some circles, trials have begum with ways to recognise the VoIP traffic, and then build a delay into this, causing the conversation to become annoying and thus not very enjoyable. This would allow the companies (ISPs) to then market their own separate services without this delay which they had built in for the VoIP which was NOT routed through their billable service.

    Thanks for the well informed views and info posted up here.

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