FCC's Martin: Comcast Blocking Was Widespread

[Brian Warkoczeski]

FCC's Martin: Comcast Blocking Was Widespread

Grant Gross, IDG News Service, www.yahoo.com

April 22, 2008

Comcast's slowing of peer-to-peer traffic appeared to be more widespread 
than the company has disclosed, the chairman of the U.S. Federal 
Communications Commission said Tuesday.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, testifying before a Senate committee, said 
Comcast's blocking of BitTorrent P-to-P (peer-to-peer) traffic appeared 
to happen when there wasn't network congestion, in contrast to claims 
from the broadband provider. Comcast's actions, first described by the 
Associated Press last October, appeared to "block uploads of a 
significant portion of subscribers" in that part of the network, even 
during times when the network wasn't congested, Martin said.

"It does not appear that this technique was used only to occasionally 
delay traffic at particular nodes suffering from network congestion at 
that time," Martin told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation 
Committee. "Based on testimony we've received thus far, this equipment 
was typically deployed over a wider geographic area or system, and is 
not even capable of knowing when an individual... segment of the network 
is congested."

The FCC is currently investigating Comcast's network management 
practices and has held two hearings about the complaints.

A Comcast spokeswoman issued a statement, repeating the company's 
assertion that it was slowing P-to-P traffic in a limited setting.

"As has always been our policy, Comcast does not, has not, and will not 
block any websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer 
services," the statement said. "We have acknowledged that we manage 
peer-to-peer traffic in a limited manner to minimize network congestion."

Comcast described its network management as a "reasonable choice," but 
it also announced in March that it would work with BitTorrent Inc. and 
other companies to move to protocol-agnostic network management by the 
end of the year.

Martin resisted calls by Democratic members of the committee to pass a 
network neutrality law, saying the FCC now has the authority to act on 
network blocking complaints on a case-by-case basis. The FCC in 2005 
adopted a set of open Internet policy principles, and it has responded 
to traffic-blocking complaints, Martin said.

But Democratic Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Bryon Dorgan of 
North Dakota noted that Comcast, in a recent FCC filing, disputed the 
FCC's authority to act on content-blocking complaints. "You're looking 
at a lawsuit" if you act on the complaints against Comcast, Kerry said.

A net neutrality law passed by Congress would clarify the FCC's 
authority to act on content-blocking complaints, Kerry and Dorgan said.

But several Republican members of the committee said an extensive net 
neutrality law could have unintended consequences and could hamper 
innovation and new business models.

"If the Internet has taught us anything, it's that it's pretty 
presumptuous to predict what the future will be," said Senator John 
Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican. "We should be very, very cautious 
about imposing regulations based on what we think competitors will do in 
the future and how we think consumers will respond based on what we 
think competitors will do."