New ISP-friendly BitTorrent includes self-throttling

Tweaks to BitTorrent’s protocols will mean that version 2.0 of the file sharing client uTorrent will throttle itself.

The new client will monitor the time it takes for packets to be sent back and forth. If it detects network congestion, it will automatically limit bandwidth usage, thus avoiding the need for ISPs to monitor and throttle P2P traffic themselves.

Or that’s the theory, anyway, and the client is currently being beta-tested.

Exactly how much of a difference it will make remains to be seen, although it could potentially save ISPs quite a headache if it does work well.