Wash those tubes out with love

Instead of following its telecom brethren in fighting file-sharing — throttling broadband, launching tiered systems — Verizon hopes to make sending large files faster and more efficient, reports The Globe and Mail.

After collaborating with researchers at Yale University, Verizon unveiled results showing that certain instances of file-sharing software adoption can lessen the drain on internet connections.

Part of that comes from making the software smarter and having it seek nearby computers to grab files from, instead of picking sources at random. Smarter software could also seek files from computers using the same ISP. Both factors combine to make the expense to ISPs less heavy.

These efforts would allow for faster, more efficient file transfers that don't hog bandwidth. The average transfer under the system tested by Verizon was 60 percent faster than it would have been, and even got as high as 600 percent faster.

Increasing instances of P2P file transfers, and the toll it takes on broadband, is frequently blamed by companies opposing "net neutrality." But working with P2P software developers can alleviate that strain without alienating users by forcing them to change their behavior.

Recently, Nortel announced the development of a technology that also helps lighten bandwidth loads. It is targeted to ISPs.