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Contents
- Divided FCC Slams Comcast's Network Management
- Does the FCC Have Authority?
- Comments From the Peanut Gallery
As expected, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday approved an enforcement action against Comcast over its network management policies, but the Republican commissioners slammed the decision as unnecessary, overly intrusive, and of questionable legal basis.
The majority decided against imposing a fine against Comcast, but required the cable provider to: disclose the details of its current network management practices; submit a compliance plan about how it will stop its current policy by year's end; and to disclose to the FCC and the public the details of network management practices Comcast intends to use in place of its current practices.
If Comcast fails to comply with the action, it will be subject to interim injunctive relief and additional enforcement action, according to the order. The FCC will review Comcast's behavior on an ongoing basis.
"In short, [Comcast was] not simply blocking their network; they had arbitrarily picked an application and blocked their subscribers' access to it," FCC chairman Kevin Martin said during a Friday meeting at the commission.
Specifically, the commission found that Comcast: blocked customers who were using very little bandwidth simply because they were using a disfavored application; ignored customers using an extraordinary amount of bandwidth even during periods of peak network congestion as long as they weren't using a disfavored application; delayed and blocked customers using a disfavored application even when there was no network congestion; and extended this practice to regions much larger than where it claimed congestion occurred.
The order will make clear that "the FCC is not having a one-night stand with Net neutrality but an affair of the heart and commitment for life," said Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps, who voted in favor of the action. "We recognize that protecting Internet openness is like protecting the Internet's immune system."
Sena Fitzmaurice, senior director of corporate communications and government affairs at Comcast, said the company was "gratified" that the FCC decided against a fine, but "disappointed" by the enforcement action.
"We believe that our network management choices were reasonable, wholly consistent with industry practices and that we did not block access to Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services," Fitzmaurice said.
Comcast again questioned whether the FCC has the authority to act on this issue.
"We are considering all our legal options and are disappointed that the commission rejected our attempts to settle this issue without further delays," she concluded.
Comcast's network management policies can under fire last year after tests conducted by the Associated Press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) concluded that Comcast was blocking access to certain file-sharing applications like BitTorrent. Comcast admitted to delaying traffic during peak times, but has continually denied ever blocking any applications. The FCC took up the issues after Washington-based interest group Free Press filed a complaint.
Free Press said Friday that the FCC ruling was a "major victory."
"Today's order makes it clear that there is nothing reasonable about restricting access to online content or technologies," Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, said in a statement.
Marvin Ammori, Free Press' general counsel, said he would not be surprised if Comcast sued the FCC over the ruling, but was confident that any court would uphold the FCC order.
"They tend to appeal most decisions that don't go their way," Ammori said. Next: Does the FCC Have Authority?