How leaked Comcast "what to say" memo on BitTorrent throttling evades the main issue

The Consumerist website is in receipt of a memo said to be from a Comcast

Keep in mind that tests conducted by the Associated Press showed this to be the case. But that wouldn't be anything Comcast would admit to.

The note's language  is carefully parsed.  Note that the recommended response is that"we do not block access... to Bit Torrent."

The keyword there is "block." That's different than priority packetize, or thwart.  And, in the very next graf, Comcast changes the subject to "a responsibility to provide all our customers with a good experience online." That as well as direct a plea of confidentiality should a customer ask about any relationship between Concast and broadband network management solutions provider Sandvine.

Here's the meat of that note:

If a customer asks: I read that Comcast is limiting customer access to BitTorrent. Is this true?

Respond: No. We do not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent. We also respect our customers' privacy and don't monitor specific customer activities on the Internet or track individual online behavior, such as which websites they visit. Therefore, we do not know whether any individual user is visiting BitTorrent or any other site.

We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good experience online and we use the latest technologies to manage our network. This is standard practice for ISPs and network operators all over the world.

Are you working with Sandvine as these reports claim?

Respond:

We rarely disclose our vendors or our processes for operating our network both for competitive reasons and to protect against network abuse.

Please do not deviate from the responses above. If you have any questions about this issue, please reach out to Brian Becker, Gene Bridges or myself.

Thanx... Michael S. Groman Manager / IP Support MD-DE-RCH Region