Well, this seems pretty good news for those us concerned with Network Neutrality. Republican (and FCC Chairman) Ken Martin sided with the two democratic commissioners to issue a warning to Comcast for blocking bit torrent traffic, then not owning up to their actions when confronted by customers/bloggers.
Why is this important? In the US, the three biggest broadband providers (Comcast, Time/Warner, Verizon) are also content providers. They are building a vertical monopoly potentially able to block any competitors trying to use their network. The FCC rightly agrees that customers should have access to anything they want over broadband networks. Rules on access still need to be worked out. This is just the first (so far positive) step. Jay ______________________________________ http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5huAOgy6g1S5wW-7ft0FRuIypdzLQD929LSAO1 "In a precedent-setting move, the FCC by a 3-2 vote on Friday enforced a policy that guarantees customers open access to the Internet." "While the FCC action did not include a fine, it does require Comcast within 30 days of release of the order to disclose the details of its "discriminatory network management"; submit a compliance plan describing how it intends to stop these practices by the end of the year; and disclose to customers and the commission its new plan. Martin said Comcast managers were not "simply managing their network, they had arbitrarily picked an application and blocked their subscribers' access to it." The agency said that Comcast had a motive to interfere. Peer-to-peer applications are used to load video that "poses a potential competitive threat to Comcast's video-on-demand service," it said. Martin was particularly critical of the company's failure to disclose to customers exactly how it was managing its traffic. The FCC's action means network operators are subject to the FCC's enforcement process and the agency will act on consumer complaints. *The FCC action arose when bloggers reported that Comcast customers who used file-sharing software like BitTorrent were noticing their transmissions were aborting prematurely.*" -- http://jaydedman.com 917 371 6790 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
