While the likes of Comcast are trying to undermine peer-to-peer transfers, it appears that other are smarter and have thought of technologies to both speed up such file sharing transfers and minimize bandwidth consumption. Verizon has announced that it has been working with researchers at Yale University on new ways to enhance the peer-to-peer opportunity through faster downloads and lower costs for the ISPs.

Test results for the new technology will be presented by the company at the Distributed Computing Industry Association’s P2P conference in New York today by the association’s P4P division. "This test signifies a turning point in the history of peer-to-peer technology and ISPs," said Robert Levitan, chief executive of P2P developer Pando Networks, the Associated Press reports.

What the P4P actually stands for is that instead of selecting peers randomly or by availability, they are selected primarily for their ISP. This means that a Verizon user will be presented first with peers who are also Verizon users. This not only reduces greatly costs for the ISP, but also speeds up transfers because internal network speeds are nearly always faster than communications with outside peers.

Verizon, unlike Comcast, does not use the same cable for tens or hundreds of households. Thus, it could care less for the actual traffic between the user and its servers and it is more concerned about outside traffic which incurs costs. However, Comcast and other cable companies want to cram as many customers as possible on what is essentially the same data link, the shared coaxial cable.

"Verizon does not accept the role of network police agency," the company said about Comcast-like attempts at killing or slowing down peer-to-peer transfers.

Thumbs up for Verizon! Maybe their move will wise up others in the Internet industry.