I have a $hit load of older 1600 series routers that cannot be loaded with the newest IOS that I need. I mean, I *can* add the newest IOS that only supports IP but I also must have the IP/FW IOS on my devices as they sit between networks that we packet filter.

I have no idea why they went to regular FTP but if anyone does find out, please post a message and I will do the same should I get the real story from our Cisco rep. I can't imagine that speed has anything to do with it. If I had to guess, maybe they are trying to simplify the update process.