`Net Control, Neutrality and Regulation

[waltky]

FCC steppin' in...

FCC chief: Comcast broke Net access rules
11 July, `08 WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday he will recommend that the nation's largest cable company be punished for violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet.

The potentially precedent-setting move stems from a complaint against Comcast that the company had blocked Internet traffic among users of a certain type of "file sharing" software that allows them to exchange large amounts of data. "The commission has adopted a set of principles that protects consumers access to the Internet," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told The Associated Press late Thursday. "We found that Comcast's actions in this instance violated our principles." Martin said Comcast has "arbitrarily" blocked Internet access, regardless of the level of traffic, and failed to disclose to consumers that it was doing so.

Company spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice on Thursday denied that Comcast blocks Internet content or services and that the "carefully limited measures that Comcast takes to manage traffic on its broadband network are a reasonable part" of the company's strategy to ensure all customers receive quality service. Martin will circulate an order recommending enforcement action against the company on Friday among his fellow commissioners, who will vote on the measure at an open meeting on Aug. 1. The action was in response to a complaint filed by Free Press, a nonprofit group that advocates for "network neutrality," the idea that all Internet content should be treated equally.

Martin's order would require Comcast to stop its practice of blocking; provide details to the commission on the extent and manner in which the practice was been used; and to disclose to consumers details on future plans for managing its network going forward. The FCC approved a policy statement in September 2005 that outlined a set of principles means to ensure that broadband networks are "widely deployed, open, affordable and accessible to all consumers." The principles, however, are "subject to reasonable network management."

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FCC comin' down on Comcast...

Report: FCC expected to rule against Comcast
July 27, 2008 - The Federal Communications Commission is expected to announce this week that Comcast for wrongly blocked access to file-sharing traffic, according to a report Sunday night on The Wall Street Journal's Web site.

The commission is expected to issue a ruling Friday that the cable giant violated federal law when it prevented some customers from swapping videos on file-swapping service BitTorrent, according to the report. Comcast has admitted "delaying" traffic to file-sharing sites. At a public hearing in February, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said, "Comcast may on a limited basis temporarily delay certain P2P traffic when that traffic has or is projected to have an adverse effect on other customers' use of the service."

On Friday, three of the five FCC commissioners voted in favor of an item saying Comcast violated federal policy by dialing down peer-to-peer traffic over its network. The ruling, which won't include a fine, will require Comcast to stop blocking or slowing traffic to peer-to-peer sites like BitTorrent, explain to consumers and the commission how it has blocked such traffic in the past, and publicly disclose how it plans to manage its network in the future.

Comcast, the largest cable provider in the U.S., has been under fire for months after it was discovered the company had been slowing down peer-to-peer traffic on its network. The company claimed it had singled out peer-to-peer, file-sharing traffic, because it was eating up an inordinate amount of bandwidth, which caused degradation across the rest of its customers. Consumer groups were incensed by the tactic, and the FCC investigated ensued over whether Comcast had violated any of its Net neutrality principles.

Report: FCC expected to rule against Comcast | News - Digital Media - CNET News.com

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High-Stakes Race to Unlock a Wider Web
Thursday, July 24, 2008; Critics Say New Technology May Hinder TV Signals

The nation's top technology companies have spent millions of dollars and nearly two years building devices, poring over laptops and working in federal labs trying to come up with a new way of providing high-speed Internet to bandwidth-hungry cities as well as hard-to-reach rural regions. Last week, the companies moved from lab to field.

Engineers from the technology heavyweights, including Motorola and Philips, lugged their laptops, antennas and other equipment to parks, homes and high-rises around the Washington area, hoping to prove to the Federal Communications Commission that the unlicensed airwaves between television stations, known as white spaces, could provide a new form of mobile Internet service.

Using white spaces "will provide a way to provide broadband across long distances at much faster speeds than cellphone networks and WiFi," said Jake Ward, spokesman for the Wireless Innovation Alliance, which includes Google, Microsoft, HP and Dell. The group is trying to convince regulators that using the airwaves will provide broadband to rural schools, beam high-definition online video to low-income households and let consumers stream music while sitting in highway traffic.

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FCC rules against Comcast...

FCC rules Comcast violated Internet access policy by blocking traffic
2 Aug. `08 WASHINGTON — A divided Federal Communications Commission has ruled that Comcast violated federal policy when it blocked Internet traffic for some subscribers and has ordered the cable giant to change the way it manages its network.

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. The commission did not assess a fine, but ordered the company to stop cutting off transfers of large data files among customers who use a special type of "file-sharing" software. Comcast says its practices are reasonable and that the FCC's so-called network-neutrality "principles" are part of a policy statement and are not enforceable rules.

Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin proposed the enforcement action and was joined by Democratic commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps in voting for approval. He was opposed by members of his own party, commissioners Robert McDowell and Deborah Taylor Tate, who both issued lengthy dissents. The commission's authority to act stems from a policy statement adopted in September 2005 that outlined a set of principles meant to ensure that broadband networks are "widely deployed, open, affordable and accessible to all consumers." The principles are "subject to reasonable network management," a concept the agency has not explicitly defined.

While the FCC action did not include a fine, it does require Comcast to stop its blocking practice by the end of the year. The company must also provide details to the commission on the management techniques it has used and to let consumers know details of its future plans. Martin was particularly critical of the company's failure to disclose to its customers exactly how it was managing its traffic, saying this action "compounded the harm." Martin said Comcast managers were not "simply managing their network, they had arbitrarily picked an application and blocked their subscribers' access to it."

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Internet Overhaul Project Gets $12M
Thursday, Jul. 31, 2008 — A massive project to redesign and rebuild the Internet from scratch is inching along with $12 million in government funding and donations of network capacity by two major research organizations.

Many researchers want to rethink the Internet's underlying architecture, saying a "clean-slate" approach is the only way to truly address security and other challenges that have cropped up since the Internet's birth in 1969. On behalf of the government, BBN Technologies Inc. is overseeing the planning and design of the Global Environment for Network Innovations, or GENI, a network on which researchers will be able to test new ideas without damaging the current Internet.

The $12 million in initial grants from the National Science Foundation will go to developing prototypes for the GENI network. To test these prototypes, the Internet2 organization is contributing 10 gigabits per second of dedicated bandwidth, so researchers won't have to worry about normal Internet traffic interfering with their experiments. National LambdaRail is offering another 30 gigabits per second of capacity, though it won't be dedicated to GENI at all times.

The bandwidth is thousands of times faster than standard home broadband connections — enough to run 30 high-quality movies into your home simultaneously. Craig Partridge, chief scientist at BBN Technologies, said the commitments amounted to an important endorsement of GENI by two organizations that run ultra-high-speed networks for universities and other researchers to conduct data-intensive projects. Construction on GENI could start in about five years and cost $350 million. Congress still has to approve those funds.

Internet Overhaul Project Gets $12M - TIME

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Comcast cryin' foul...

Comcast appeals FCC Web-blocking decision
Thurs., Sept. 4, 2008 WASHINGTON - Commission determined company violated policy ensuring unfettered access

Comcast Corp. is appealing an FCC ruling that the company is improperly blocking customers' Web traffic, triggering a legal battle that could determine the extent of the government's authority to regulate the Internet. In a precedent-setting move, a divided Federal Communications Commission last month determined that the company is violating a federal policy that guarantees unfettered access to the Internet. Comcast challenged the FCC decision Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington.

Comcast executive vice president David L. Cohen said in a statement that the company is seeking "review and reversal" of the FCC order and that the commission's action was "legally inappropriate and its findings were not justified by the record." The Comcast case arose from complaints by users of a type of "file-sharing" software often used to download large data files, usually video. Tests by The Associated Press and others found that file-sharing transmissions were aborting prematurely. It was later discovered that the company was cutting off transfers without informing customers.

The FCC noted Comcast's network management practices were "discriminatory and arbitrary" and that the company's practices "contravene industry standards and have significantly impeded Internet users' ability to use applications and access content of their choice." The agency also noted that the type of traffic Comcast is blocking has become "a competitive threat" to cable operators because it is used by people to view high-quality video that they "might otherwise watch (and pay for) on cable television."

More Comcast appeals FCC Web-blocking decision - Internet - MSNBC.com