In response to an August order from the FCC, Comcast has unveiled a new “protocol-agnostic” method for managing heavy traffic on its cable-based network.

At present the ISP blocks uploads from BitTorrent and other Peer-2-Peer applications when they exceed certain thresholds. With the new method due to be rolled out by the end of the year, Comcast will target the traffic of individual users.

“The new approach will focus on managing the traffic of those individuals who are using the most bandwidth at times when network congestion threatens to subscribers’ broadband experience and who are contributing disproportionately to such congestion at those points in time,” reads a detailed filing with the FCC.

The company says that the new software will monitor traffic on each segment of Comcast’s network, and if a segment’s upstream or downstream usage exceeds certain thresholds, traffic from people using excessively large amounts of bandwidth will be “assigned a lower priority status”, meaning their bits will be temporarily delayed.

A subscriber’s traffic “returns to normal priority status once his or her bandwidth usage drops below a set threshold over a particular time interval.”

Comcast tested the method out in five US cities over the summer, and the company says they received no complaints whatsoever, they added that just one percent of customers are affected by the change.

“We manage our network for one reason: to deliver a superior, reliable, high-quality experience to every high-speed Internet customer, every time they use our service,” says a company spokeswoman. “This new technique will ensure that all customers get their fair share of bandwidth every hour of the day. As we roll out these new practices, we’ll make sure our customers are fully informed.”

Robb Topolski, the independent network researcher who sparked off the FCC investigation when he first discovered the ISP was blocking BitTorrent uploads, has commended Comcast for its honesty in describing its tactics.

But he is unsure why Comcast is doing it. “Their own test results show that so few people who be impacted by this and they say that those that are impacted are only slightly impacted,” he said. “I’ve got to wonder why do it at all?”

Comcast has also installed a 250GB a month bandwidth cap for each subscriber.

In the past, the ISP reserved the right to terminate users when they reached an unspecified monthly bandwidth threshold. Users who exceed the 250GB cap twice in six months may have their account terminated for a year.