The issue re-emerged in the US last month when cable company Comcast was exposed in a media report. An investigation revealed that Comcast was using fake email addresses and deliberately deterring its customers from certain high-bandwidth activities based on peer-topeer file sharing. Most attention focuses on pirate film downloads. But the reporter attempted to download the text of the Bible using the "peer-to-peer" service, BitTorrent.

Comcast used 'traffic shaping' technology from Canadian firm Sandvine to interfere with an internet user's ability to send and receive data packets across a network boundary.

This is a sensitive topic in the US, where discussion about 'net neutrality' and the power of service providers to block or accelerate certain websites, applications and internet protocols has been raging for six years. In Ireland, the debate is only now coming to the fore as broadband penetration improves and more internet users avail of faster and wider connections for data-heavy activity.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) is an efficient method of directly transferring large data files, such as films or large chunks of software, between computers by bypassing central servers where most data is stored. Some of this activity breaches copyright laws . . . in particular distributing films and music beyond simply sharing . . . but it is also used legitimately for many other purposes such as open source program development.

In Britain, the BBC estimated that one third of all consumer internet activity was in high-bandwidth peerto-peer file transfers, while in Ireland internet service providers contacted by the Sunday Tribune said only around 10% of their customers used these applications regularly.

However, as one Irish operator put it, those few customers use an awful lot of bandwidth. Two percent of his customers were using 90% of his bandwidth, one operator claimed.

"It's a chicken and egg issue: the cost of facilitating peer-to-peer activity is 'bad' for telcos and ISPs, but on the other hand these are the very services that drive customers to your product, " said Paul Woods, commercial director of broadband operator Perlico.

Some major Irish internet providers such as Irish Broadband, UPC (NTL/Chorus) and Digiweb are already using traffic shaping procedures that essentially moderate which high-bandwidth services can be accessed by their customers.

All internet providers will be forced to decide whether they are laissezfaire conduits facilitating contentneutral internet access, or arbitrators that must decide on which traffic has priority on their systems, according to Ovum principal analyst Michael Philpott.

"It might seem obscure now because only a small, vocal minority is concerned, " he said. "But Irish consumers will begin to care when it affects their user experience and operators are going to have to stipulate their attitudes to dealing with this trend."

Irish Broadband uses traffic shaping so that "all users and all applications get fair access to network resources when they need it", according to commercial director Ruairi Jennings. He said Irish Broadband would not "throttle" individual user connections, but at certain times P2P traffic will be restricted to ensure other applications have adequate access to network resources.

UPC networks director Conor Harrison said "abusing the network" by downloading "excessive" files would result in the cable operator restricting traffic. UPC monitors individual connections and reduces P2P traffic at peak demand times as it has experienced heavy data users affecting the connections of other UPC users in their locality.

"It's very much an evolving arena.

We're constantly looking at traffic management and it's a sensitive subject, " Harrison said. "We have to ensure the network keeps pace with the applications out there."

Eircom said it does not engage in any specific traffic-shaping practices, and that the specifically bandwidthhungry P2P activity is in decline compared to regular web use.

"This is due to the increasing popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo, as well as video streaming sites such as YouTube, which all deliver their content via standard web interfaces (HTTP) rather than by using any P2P applications, " said a company spokesman. He said demand on Eircom's network, even during peak hours, tends to be less than "typical usage patterns seen across the industry".

Irish broadband companies including Eircom, Magnet, Smart Telecom and UPC are investing in the rollout of fibre-based next generation networks with vastly expanded bandwidth capacities capable of carrying much more data than can be carried on copper-based systems.

However, the debate on how to deal with high-bandwidth activity will intensify as network architecture is expanded, says Analysys principle consultant James Allen.

"As operators upgrade systems, they have to find revenue to pay for it, and the question will be whether they blanket charge the data-heavy providers of P2P services, internet telephony (VoIP), video on demand and internet television (IPTV) for using their networks to sell their services on, or integrate electronic payas-you-go billing technology to the end user. The debate has begun in the US, but if an early adopter in Europe figures out a way to do it then that might become the norm."

Allen estimated it might take up to five years for the various players to get to grips with the issue. In the meantime, traffic shaping is likely to increase, but some operators will differentiate themselves by advertising unfettered access.

Timing will matter: as broadband speeds have increased, a new flock of data-heavy applications have become mainstream, evidenced for example by the growth of internet TV companies such as Narrowstep, Joost, Hulu, Vudu and Dublin-based Bablegum.

Established online giants such as Amazon are selling films, and internet providers are either partnering with Hollywood studios directly, for example, or offering their own download services such as Eircom's new trial of video on demand services.

The race to 'own' these data-heavy revenue streams has definitely begun between the network owners, established internet companies and new entrants selling their services 'over the top'.

"Clearly incumbent [operators] don't like the Microsofts and Googles of this world encroaching on their core business with data-heavy applications, but in the end they'll have to like it or lump it, " said Perlico's Woods.