EDonkey Leads P2P

BASINGSTOKE, U.K. -- A recent study conducted by intelligent broadband network equipment maker Sandvine, confirms that eDonkey continues to be king of P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing networks in France and Germany while BitTorrent remains dominant in the UK and North America.

P2P file sharing is a worldwide phenomenon that continues to evolve and take on new followers. In Europe, upstream traffic represents up to 85% of all bandwidth consumed on broadband provider networks. Downstream P2P traffic represents about 60% of all bandwidth consumed. File sharing in the UK and North America consume about 48% of total bandwidth on the downstream and 76% on the upstream.

“P2P file sharing is here to stay,” said Chris Colman, managing director of EMEA marketing and sales. “P2P file sharing is a valuable subscriber application. Broadband service providers need to have visibility into these popular subcriber applications so they can reduce congestion in the network and ensure their subscribers’ quality of experience.“

When it comes to P2P file sharing, the French vault their way to the top with an impressive 90% on the upload, at all hours of a 24-hour day and 85% on the download. In Germany, upstream usage hits the charts at 83% with the downstream at 65%.

Edonkey is the preferred application in France and Germany, garnering about 50% of all P2P traffic on both the upstream and downstream, ahead of BitTorrent with 26%. The remaining players, Gnutella, FastTrack, WinMX, and Direct Connect each capture less than 10% of the remaining share.

In Germany, Edonkey handles about 72% of all file-sharing traffic, while BitTorrent consumes about 16% of traffic. Edonkey captures 80% of all French P2P traffic with BitTorrent trailing behind FastTrack and Gnutella.

“After the legal claims from the film industry earlier in the year, there was a slight mass market blip in BitTorrent usage, but it’s on the rise again as more sites have emerged. We are also seeing an increase in legitimate file sharing with open source software distribution and paid download sites,” added Chris Colman.

Sandvine Inc.