Verizon VP Talks Sense All Day Long About P2P

The dirty little secret that's often overlooked when we Internet pundits and newshounds discuss throttling of P2P traffic by ISPs, is that it's  an indictment of the infrastructure, not the process. Why would you discuss rationing if the capacity was there? P2P is simply the thin edge of a big and growing wedge. It's easy to single it out for abuse because the vast majority of it sharing copyright infringing entertainment. But everything is going to be eating bandwith pretty soon on our beloved Intertubes. The answer is always to make the pipe bigger. Fiber-optic was the smart play, and Verizon made it. Listen to Mark Wegleitner, Verizon CTO talk sense about Filesharing:

Q: Verizon is working with several peer-to-peer companies to find ways to use the technology to distribute content more efficiently. How can the P2P protocol benefit service providers like Verizon?

A: Wegleitner: Peer-to-peer is a distribution enabler. But often when people talk about P2P, it gets lumped into a category with things that are bad, mainly because it takes up so much capacity on the network. But whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, there is underlying technology for P2P that can be used to everyone's advantage to get content like video, which everyone is asking for, distributed in the most efficient way.

We conducted some tests with the P4P group and Yale University, and showed that customers have a better experience, and we use fewer resources, when we used the P2P technology. It's really a win-win situation for us and the customer.

And we're still working cooperatively with P2P companies and the rest of the folks in the P4P group to employ the technology in a way that would maximize its impact.


The cable companies are going to reach the upper end of their capacity on copper wires in the near future. Verizon will just keep upgrading the ends of the exisitng fiber-optic wire, and offering the wire to more customers. I couldn't help but notice that in the thumbnail picture of Wegleitner attached to article, he was smiling. Is anyone ever smiling at the cable companies?
Tags:  P2P, Verizon, Sense, talk, SEN, TAL, K