Mobile broadband 3 UK will bring traffic shaping from Monday that will limit its customers’ access to P2P social networking sites.

However, only the customers (if they access to P2P sites) who are in high mobile broadband traffic areas (congested cells) will be affected by traffic shaping, the ISP clarified in a statement. Speeds could be throttled down to 400Kb/sec, if a customer access a P2P site. However, access to video streaming sites will not be restricted.

The Register has quoted 3 Mobile UK as saying:

“In order to improve the service for the majority of our customers, we are actively managing the amount of bandwidth made available for peer-to-peer file sharing and limiting the number of streaming video sessions to one at a time per user at peak times.”

3 Mobile broadband would also bring a new tariff system based on bandwidth amounts used by a customer.

Mobile broadband subscriptions continue to see phenomenal growth, especially in urban areas where mobile broadband usage has been driven by both residents and businesses. Increased mobile broadband usage and high bandwidth applications have been a serious problem to mobile operators who strive to provide better service to majority of their customers.