By jessica E. Vascellaro
Comcast Corp., facing a growing threat from online video services, is fighting fire with fire.
The country's largest cable-service provider soon will start testing a new way to deliver its television channels, co-opting the same technology standard that upstart Internet rivals have used to challenge traditional pay-TV business models.
Using the MIT campus as its proving ground, Comcast in coming months will try delivering TV channels using the same standard used to deliver data over the Internet, known as the Internet protocol, or IP.
Like other cable providers, Comcast currently delivers channels over less versatile digital television technology that sends the video in streams to set-top boxes and isn't compatible with the Internet.