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Toting a collaborative effort with BitTorrent, Comcast has committed to change its management practices in response to accusations that it throttles connections to file-sharing services.

The mass downloading of movies and music on illegal torrents strains available bandwidth on a given host. In response to this problem, rival Time Warner began testing a tiered broadband model in select markets.

But tiered broadband is as unsavory to consumers as connection throttling. Comcast said it would develop a new technique for managing bandwidth to its 13 million subscribers by the end of 2008.

And while it won't stop slowing the connections of bandwidth-hoggers, it will stop targeting the users of specific sites (such as BitTorrent) or software.

The liaison with BitTorrent stipulates the two will work with ISPs, technology companies and the Internet Engineering Task Force to explore a new distribution architecture for bandwidth-hungry media.

Both parties feel the bandwidth issue can be worked out through private business discussions without government intervention.

Nonetheless, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin shall continue investigating the management practices of broadband providers, reports Reuters.

"While it may take time to implement its preferred new traffic management technique, it is not at all obvious why Comcast couldn't stop its current practice of arbitrarily blocking its broadband customers from using certain applications," Martin observed with unshrouded rebuke.

Other companies exploring bandwidth-optimizing opportunities include Verizon and Nortel.