Virgin announcement good for VoIP traffic

Leading consumer media provider Virgin has announced that it is to begin trialling piracy detection software on its internet networks, making VoIP traffic smoother.

The software makes it possible for the telecom provider to monitor users' home-broadband networks and determine if illegal filesharing is occurring. Hosted telephony will not be affected.

The news is good for VoIP customers because generally illegal filesharing occurs over platforms, such as bittorrent, which slow down a network and can hinder VoIP traffic for users. By running this software, Virgin is providing a disincentive to illegal downloads, and networks may be cleaned up as a consequence.

The software uses something called deep packet inspection (DPI) technology, which allows the software to use algorithms to analyse the traffic flowing over a network and determine if it is legitimate or not. As the process is automated there are fewer worries regarding privacy.

Detica, the company which runs the software on behalf of Virgin, describes itself on its website as: "The only consultancy to specialise in helping clients manage and exploit information assets in order to reveal actionable intelligence."