Comcast recently announced it will launch a “protocol agnostic” tool that manages its users’ bandwidth usage during peak traffic hours. Basically, what this means is that during peak traffic hours Comcast will throttle certain heavy users’ connections and download speeds, which will definitely have an impact on customer experience and consumer behavior.

For consumer markets, it’s easier to gain support as we can all point to the anonymous college kid illegally sharing large media files. However, what does this policy truly mean for online marketers and their targeted customers?

For businesses that rely on file downloads by their customers (software demo, gaming, etc), if their customers experience throttling by the ISP, what are the chances these customers will visit the same Web site again? Also, if this further translates into a revenue opportunity for the ISP, isn't this fringing on the outskirts of net neutrality? You bet! If Comcast does it, other ISPs will quickly follow in its footsteps.

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About The Author

Yvonne Yuen is a senior product manager at Lyris. She is responsible for defining and delivering customer requirements which improve their online marketing ROI.

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