Comcast's downloading innovation proves why FreePress Comcast petition is unreasonable

Comcast's announcement at CES to offer a quicker system for downloading movies and shows as reported by the New York Times is strong proof of why the FreePress petition asking the FCC to not allow Comcast to manage the p2p traffic on its network -- is unreasonable. 

Comcast is innovating to enable its network to offer what it calls "wideband," which will enable Comcast customers to download HD movies on demand -- that previously took up to six hours to download -- to less than 4 minutes.

• This innovative Comcast service will begin to be available to some Comcast customers in 2008 and is planned to offer ~6,000 video on demand titles to the broader Comcast base after that.

The point I am making here is that any network has relative bandwidth chokepoints where traffic must be managed in order to deliver expected quality of service to all customers.

• Moreover, Comcast is innovating so that customers can get movies downloaded faster than p2p services without disrupting the performance of other customers.
• This is in stark contrast to the unreasonable FreePress petition which maintains that Comcast has no right to manage the traffic on its network -- if it alters the flow of peer-2-peer traffic in any way.
  • For the FCC to grant the FreePress petition it would have to totally abandon the long history of networks being afforded "reasonable network management"to maintain quality of service.
  • The FCC would also have to formally choose edge innovation over network innovation -- a position which would be directly at odds with the FCC's clear position and precedent supporting technology policy neutrality.