January 16th, 2008
FCC starts inquiry into Comcast P2P blocking
After months of newspaper reports, customer complaints and numerous petitions, the FCC has initiated an inquiry into Comcast’s throttling of P2P traffic. Comcast has until Jan. 25 to respond in writing to some questions from the FCC. And on Monday the agency opened the public comment period on a petition filed by Free Press, Public Knowledge and the Media Access Project.
In that petition, the groups claimed that:
“Comcast is engaging in substantial network neutrality violations. Specifically, Comcast is secretly degrading innovative protocols used for transporting and sharing large files.”
Deadline for initial comments is Feb. 13 and reply comments must be posted by Feb. 28.
The FCC is also opening inquiry into a petition by Vuze, a net video service that relies on BitTorrent, and is looking at charges that Verizon blocked text messages from Naral Pro-Choice America.
Here are a few comments I got on a phone call with Craig Aaron, communications director for FreePress:
We’re obviously pleased that the FCC is taking some action. This announcement is the first step down the road” of stopping Comcast from blocking traffic. The longer they wait, the more entrenched these practices become. While we’re certainly pleased the FCC has started the process, it doesn’t mean anything if they drag their heels or they don’t take action. The key here is that they see it through.
The Vuze petition asks for clarity over what is meant by reasonable network management, which is an exception to the ban on discrimination.
We don’t think there’s anything reasonable about it. We think the language is clear, and that this is a clear Net neutrality violation, even under the loose FCC definition.
As for Verizon’s text discrimination, the lawyers are essesntially haggling over how to define texting: is it a phone service or an information service? Depending on the answer, different parts of the telecom laws apply (or perhaps different laws, I’m not quite sure). In any case, Aaron said, such categorizations can’t be allowed to subvert the proper result:
“However you define it, it shouldn’t be tolerated under any circumstances. We’re looking to the FCC to take quick decisive action to all of these would-be gatekeepers.”
Oh, for balance, let me not forget the Comcast statement:
“Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services,” said David L. Cohen, XVP at Comcast.
