To combat network congestion, Comcast will slow the Internet connection of its heaviest users for as long as 20 minutes. It used to be that Comcast would block altogether certain traffic, including BitTorrent. The FCC said a few days ago that doing such a thing—blocking traffic it doesn’t like—is a big no-no. So now you’ll have to deal with a bit of slowdown.

Even though it may seem just as annoying, slowing Internet service, now Comcast isn’t allowed to pick and choose what it blocks from its network. Now, if you’re found to be using “too much” bandwidth (Comcast says it has the tools to monitor traffic in real time), Comcast will slow you down a bit. A Comcast rep said the slowed speed would be comparable to a “really good” DSL connection.

Somehow, I don’t think people are shelling out X-Amount per month for unlimited Internet access just to have a “really good” DSL connection. That’s a fight for another day, though.

That said, is this enough to calm down the boo boys, merely slowing down speeds for a few minutes rather than blocking traffic altogether? For some light BitTorrent users I’d have to say yeah, it ought to be. You’ll never satisfy the guys hanging around TorrentLeech and Bit-HDTV all day, though.