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Comcast, America’s most beloved ISP, has reacted to an FCC investigation into its alleged traffic shaping by updating its terms of service for the first time in two years. The new TOS says it “uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards” to prevent “spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other risks and degradations of service.” All done, of course, to “deliver the best possible Internet experience to all of its customers.”
Maybe I’m crazy. Probably. But it seems to me that when Comcast purposely interferes with packets I’ve requested that’s tantamount to a “degradation of service.” It’s certainly not an improvement, right?
The thinking on Comcast’s part was that if they codified their policies, users couldn’t drag it into court for the shaping. Regardless, tech-savvy will complain. Hopefully their complaints will trickle down to Joe Public.
Comcast tweaks Terms of Service in wake of throttling uproar [Ars Technica via Slashdot]