Does nice-ness exist for bandwidth? [sic]

[Lex Hider <alexeijh@pacific.net.au>]

Can I nice various network jobs [eg, web-browsing, apt-get update, mail-get]
like I would a CPU process.

Here's the deal.

Using nice on my linux box is great.
eg.
nice make-kpkg --revision=x kernel_image

While compiling my kernel I still get priority to other
things that I'm doing [mozilla, ooffice, etc] but if I'm
not doing anything all my cpu cycles go to the compile.
[I'm sure most people know what nice is but I want to make
sure my point is clear.]

I'd like to do the same thing with respect to bandwidth.
eg.
netnice wget http://foo.com/dirty_big_download
netnice apt-get dist-upgrade

Now if I'm web-browsing and reading a page already loaded
all the bandwidth goes to wget/apt-get.
But when I am loading a web-site or checking my mail then
the priority for the bandwidth goes to the browser like
in the cpu-nice example.

=======
Does an application that achieves the above exist currently?
If not; is it possible or even a good idea?

Thankyou,

Lex.

PS - I'd appreciate a CC because I'm not on user list but
I will check the web archives regardless.