Earlier in May, Beijing Netcom had to deny rumors that it was preparing to block BitTorrent traffic. Now China Railcom is the focus of similar rumors, which it too has denied.
The high volume of BT traffic (as much as 30%-40% of total bandwidth) has led many people to wonder whether ISPs will try to speed up the Internet for everyone else by blocking BT service. A Railcom representative says that they have no plans to do so, and that in fact, they are looking for ways to expand BT and other P2P services. The analysis is that a large percentage of their customers use BT and will find other providers if it no longer works.
The situation has improved – in a civil suit last year, a broadband provider trying to limit consumers’ bandwidth said that new network software like BT did not fall under the category of Internet services they were contracted to provide.
Links [all Chinese]:
China Railcom denies cutting off BT
Beijing Netcom denies limiting BT
Speculation on Netcom’s BT service