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From the Technology Trader column.

Bill Alpert thinks its only a matter of time before phone companies require an extra payment if you want to get priority on your high-def downloaded video from sites like YouTube or Joost. He thinks the network arms dealers like CSCO and JNPR will benefit but he's also keen on a technology called "DPI":

"But there's a more specific way to play the undoing of 'Net Neutrality: a technology called Deep Packet Inspection, or DPI. Such gear lets carriers look inside the data packets that cross their network, to determine if the traffic is e-mail, video or voice. The network can then control its traffic, facilitating media flows and deprioritizing a BitTorrent node that's disseminating pirated Beatles music.

Many of the DPI vendors' sales have been outside the U.S., where regulators worry less about treating all traffic equally. U.S. carriers have bought DPI devices, but mostly just to know what's happening on their wires. DPI's popularity, however, could leap if the U.S. phone and cable firms can use the gear to generate new revenue by selling special-delivery service for an Internet movie. Every big wireline and wireless carrier in the U.S. has a requisition out now for DPI gear, says Fred Sammartino, head marketer for the privately-held DPI seller Ellacoya Networks, of Merrimack, N.H."

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