According to a study from the German-based Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, U.S. cable broadband providers Comcast and Cox Communications are not slowing down BitTorrent traffic during peak hours alone, but all throughout the day. The study, conducted between March 18 and May 15, involved around 8,000 users from all over the world.

Having no less than 11 million customers, Comcast represents the second largest high-speed Internet provider in the United States. Any move that Comcast would make for favoring or blocking certain types of content moving over its network would practically have very serious consequences. The Internet principle of Net Neutrality would be broken, as the content originating from different locations will not be treated equally and without any preference by the ISP. Therefore, this is not something that can be taken lightly.

At the end of February, the Federal Communications Commission has grilled Comcast Monday over their policy of slowing down or canceling certain types of data transfers, which are using peer-to-peer technology. Although initially the company has denied the accusations, it was eventually forced to admit that it does indeed significantly slow down certain peer-to-peer transfers, as part of a so-called "limited form of network management."

According to Comcast spokeswoman, Sena Fitzmaurice, it is possible that the users who participated in the institute’s study were not representative, the company considering its current network management plan to be "a reasonable choice."