Nokia launches a solution to fight the “bit pipe” challenge

To help mobile operators better manage their data traffic, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is introducing a network solution that lets operators control the use of network resources by bandwidth hungry applications such as file sharing and Voice over IP telephony — giving operators the tools to maintain better control over their networks.

The Nokia Peer-to-peer Traffic Control is the industry’s first integrated solution to allow mobile operators to profitably manage the bandwidth available for peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic, and thus balance the allocation of network resources.  The centralized solution is implemented as a software upgrade to the Nokia Flexi Intelligent Service Node (ISN) and will be commercially available during the first half of 2007.

Source: Nokia PR

Why oh why do you have to squeeze the pipe? Now I know that a certain level of QoS (quality of service) has to be maintained across the entire subscriber base, but all this is going to bring is tiered services. Just like we have DSL at 1.5/3/6 mbps, cellular providers are going to do the same thing. The entire country of Finland is probably laughing at us right now since our [American] definition of broadband is anything over 768 kbps.