The NewsDemon Blog

United Kingdom broadband provider O2 will begin throttling USENET newsgroups between 8PM and 11pm. Customers will experience slower access times to certain services during these hours.

On the O2 website, the company has stated that due to heavy traffic from some users, it has prevented or slowed access to what they deem to be “priority” traffic to email and social networking sites. They state that growth of online traffic has put a strain on their network.

The company had announced that they would begin rolling out the throttle program beginning today. Customers of the broadband provider may very well experience slower speeds to particular online destinations, including USENET newsgroups.

The site clearly states that all NNTP and other protocol and port traffic related to newsgroups would experience a slow down during the 8-11pm time period.

Since the announcement, ISP newsgroup discussions have begun stating their displeasure with this recent move, threatening to leave the provider.

This is the first time that a UK provider has imposed a throttle on ports. The US has experienced throttle campaigns by major players Comcast and Time Warner Cable which are still being tested out in certain regions.