Could BITAG have stopped Comcast's network neutrality breach?

A group for Internet service providers could reduce litigation by building consensus between technical experts on whether certain network management practices are acceptable, according to Dale Hatfield, executive director of the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG).

Companies such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T formed BITAG in June along with Google, Microsoft, Intel, and a few others. The effort came as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considered making rules about how phone and cable companies manage Internet traffic. The techniques Internet service providers use to manage their networks can become controversial. Comcast launched years of litigation when it was caught interrupting service to people who use the high-bandwidth application BitTorrent, a file-sharing program. The company has since renounced the tactic, but the consequences of the litigation still have lawyers reeling. Hatfield said some details still need to be worked out, but took a question on how BITAG would approach an Internet service provider that wants feedback on a new network management practice. "An ISP contemplating a new or revised network management practice would submit a request to the BITAG asking for a review of the practice," he said. If a special committee of a working group accepts the request, he said, it would be assigned to a subcommittee. That might sound very bureaucratic, but at that point the engineers would start making technical headway. The first step is to understand how the practice works from a technical perspective.