This week several tech companies and ISPs announced that they would form the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG) as a way to educate lawmakers on broadband management processes. The group said its mission is to “bring together engineers and other similar technical experts to develop consensus on broadband network management practices or other related technical issues that can affect users’ Internet experience, including the impact to and from applications, content and devices that utilize the Internet.”

BitTorrent has always believed that innovation and collaboration with ISPs where all parties participated in some self-regulation was a more ideal approach than heavy-handed policy. Even in the early days of the net neutrality debate we worked hard to find common ground with Comcast, and to address issues associated with rich media content and network capacity management.

For us, the path has lead to the development of uTP, which is a protocol designed to be sensitive to bottlenecks and yield capacity to other applications when it senses network congestion. It is through innovation like this that we can hope to improve our users’ experience, as well as yield benefits to ISPs by putting less strain on the network.

Challenges are best met with cooperation, and the formation of this group signals that everyone is ready to put down their swords and work together and look for solutions that are in the best of interest of all parties involved.

– Eric –