Comcast to skip latest FCC network management hearing

[Brian Warkoczeski]

Comcast to skip latest FCC network management hearing

By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer

April 16, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO - When Comcast Corp. Internet subscriber Robb Topolski was 
prevented from sharing digital files of Tin Pin Alley-era music with 
other barbershop quartet enthusiasts, the computer engineer launched a 
personal investigation.

Topolski, 44, soon found that Comcast was blocking such uploads now and 
then in an effort to keep its broadband pipes unclogged. He said he 
understood the need of the company to keep Internet traffic flowing 
freely, but was dismayed that the blocking was done without notice and 
seemingly at the expense of select Comcast customers who swap files of 
music, videos and other bandwidth-sucking data.

The Hillsboro, Ore. resident posted his findings last summer on a Web 
site for "broadband enthusiasts" that touched off a protest that by 
January grew into a large-scale Federal Communications Commission 
investigation.

On Thursday, Topolski will be one of the first witnesses called to 
testify before the FCC at a scheduled daylong hearing into the network 
management practices of Comcast and its competitors

The hearing is being held at Stanford University and is the second such 
session the FCC will hold this year. The investigation and public 
hearings are the agency's most serious examination of "Net neutrality," 
the principle that all Internet traffic be treated equal. Equal 
treatment of traffic is a long-standing practice on the Internet, and 
some consumers groups think it should be enforced by regulation because 
network owners, such as Comcast, have begun asserting more control over 
the Internet.

"Comcast ultimately has shortchanged some portion of its customers and 
continues to do so today," said Topolski, who resigned from Intel Corp. 
last year to battle colon cancer.

Topolski is just one of 17 witnesses scheduled to testify before the 
five FCC commissioners. But Comcast has declined an FCC request to send 
an executive to testify as it did at the agency's first hearing on Feb. 
25 at Harvard University.

"This obviously isn't just a Comcast issue," said company spokeswoman 
Sena Fitzmaurice, who said a company executive testified at the initial 
hearing in Boston in February because it was more focused on the 
company's behavior than the one scheduled at Stanford.

Comcast also came under fire after the Harvard hearing for hiring "seat 
warmers" to help pack the auditorium. Event organizers accused the 
shills of applauding loudly for pro-industry sentiments and hogging 
seats that prevented company critics from attending. Comcast endured 
another round of withering cries of censorship afterward.

Fitzmaurice said the seat warmers were necessary to ensure that the 
company's views were fairly represented and it was common lobbying 
industry practice in Washington. She said the company would not be 
hiring seat warmers for the Stanford hearing.

Comcast acknowledged that it sometimes delays file-sharing traffic for 
subscribers as a way to keep Web traffic flowing for everyone. After the 
Harvard hearing, the company said it plans to change the way it manages 
its network and points to recent partnership announcements with 
BitTorrent Inc. — a company founded by the inventor of a more efficient 
successor to file-sharing services such as Napster and KaZaa — and with 
file-sharing software developer Pando Networks.

After the Pando collaboration was announced on Tuesday, the FCC invited 
Comcast Chief Technical Officer Tony Werner to testify Thursday.

"We look forward to more fully understanding the goals, scope and time 
frame of this industry effort," FCC spokesman Robert Kenny said.

Comcast officials said Werner wouldn't testify because he doesn't have 
enough time to prepare and that he recently suffered a death in the family.

The FCC investigation got started after consumer groups and a provider 
of online video filed complaints alleging Comcast hampered traffic 
between users without notice, violating the Internet's tradition of 
equal treatment of traffic. Two of the groups also asked the FCC to fine 
Comcast.

"We want to make sure the Internet stays as it is," said Ben Scott of 
Free Press, one of the groups that has asked the FCC to fine Comcast.

Scott plans to urge the FCC during testimony Thursday to enforce a 
statement it created in 2005 that says consumers are entitled to access 
all lawful Internet content. But Comcast and others argues that the 
statement is not a regulation and is unenforceable.

"Should we give more control to the network owners, who can then decide 
which Web sites load quickly?" Scott asked. "Can they become the 
gatekeepers for Internet content?"