By Matthew Lasar
January 06, 2009 - 09:01AM CT

Comcast says that, as of December 31, it has turned over a new leaf, network management practices-wise. The new-and-hopefully-improved "protocol agnostic" system the company unveiled to the Federal Communications Commission in September is now in effect. "We have deployed the new technique throughout our network and turned off the P2P-specific technique everywhere in the network," Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice told Ars.

The company informed the FCC of the changes in a statement filed on Monday. "Comcast will continue to refine and optimize these congestion management practices to deliver the best possible broadband experience for our customers," company Vice President for Regulatory Affairs Kathryn A. Zachem promised the Commission. The announcement also discloses updated acceptable use rules for Comcast customers.

From A to B - Even before the FCC told Comcast to mend its network management practices, the company had pledged that it would take a different approach to the problem. As Ars has reported, a month after the FCC's Order sanctioning the company in August, Comcast outlined what and how the ISP would change. Its September 19 filing with the Commission described the old system in Appendix A, and the new one in Appendix B.

As Comcast put it, Plan B "will not manage congestion by focusing on the use of the specific protocols that place a disproportionate burden on network resources, or any other protocols." Instead, the emphasis will be on the traffic of consumers who "are using the most bandwidth at times when network congestion threatens to degrade subscribers' broadband experience and who are contributing disproportionately to such congestion at those points in time."