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Yesterday we reported of a deadline given to Comcast by FCC in the wake of its mismanagement of the internet traffic. Mitch Bowling responded to it and talked about the new system that would disperse traffic away from specific web applications that choke Web traffic.

The current development as reported states that Comcast has made no final decision on how it’s going to manage this congestion in network traffic. The problem had been brought up by the Associated Press that reported of Comcast putting breaks to BitTorrent’s traffic. The new plan has been underway since May and there have been alternative methods tried out but there has been nothing close to a final setup chalked out.

Charlie Douglas, spokesman for Comcast said:

Comcast has been conducting tests on new network management techniques since the end of May. Among the leading options is to slow all Web traffic from heavy users for up to 20 minutes during times of heavy network traffic.

So what happens next? Once the congestion problem is resolved the speed breaks would get shorter and be limited to a mere minute or two. The only thing bound to happen in case the congestion resurfaces would be the ‘de-prioritisation of the traffic designated to a site that draws heavy traffic.

The approach has been coined the term ‘protocol-agnostic’ and by not blocking particular services Comcast would be complying with FCC rules. Another interesting aspect is that Comcast doesn’t slow down all users, to this Douglas reasoned by saying:

It’s the heaviest of users that are directly contributing to the degradation of the service for the other people on the network.

It somehow clarifies Comcast’s position for it had been called dishonest for its network management practice. But if Comcast does come out with something transparent it would definitely help clear their position amongst their accusers. And they ought to do it soon.