Will the New FCC Slap Comcast or Let Them Continue On Course?
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Lots of eyes are on the new administration, and nowhere (other than possibly Gauntanamo and the prison closing) is the view more focused than on the FCC and its treatment of large ISPs, with regards to net neutrality.
After hearing nothing for awhile after the discontinuation of the early reset policy for P2P communication, the agency wants a more complete explanation of the Comcast ‘kinder, gentler’ policy of traffic shaping.
from the fool-me-once… dept
Comcast has already been slapped down — well, slapped on the wrist, anyway — by the FCC for violating Commission rules with its traffic-shaping efforts, and it could be on its way for a second rebuke. The FCC has asked Comcast for some more details on its newest “congestion management” system, which throttles heavy users’ speeds for periods of time. As part of the penalty for its previous infraction, Comcast had to file details of the new system with the FCC, and the commission know wants to know if Comcast treats traffic from its own VoIP system differently than traffic from competing providers’ VoIP services. The company apparently advertises the fact that its VoIP service doesn’t get affected by heavy network traffic and slowdowns, giving the impression that it degrades other VoIP traffic in this new system, while leaving traffic from its service alone. This will be an interesting test of the new FCC administration, to see how it handles these sorts of complaints compared to its predecessor. It could also set an important precedent, because it sounds like Comcast handles its own VoIP traffic in a way similar to other cable companies, by setting aside a portion of bandwidth that’s managed separately from a subscriber’s internet traffic.
(from Tech Dirt)
The new administration has promised the young that net neutrality will be a guiding principle, so any deviation from that will be a large sticking point for that part of the population. Let’s hope that this FCC get’s it right.
All of the large ISPs have yet to explain why, when the money was flowing like the Amazon River in the early to late ‘90s, no upgrades to their infrastructures were implemented. I’d like to get a clear answer on this. How about you?
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4 Comments
zenium
January 21st, 2009
at 6:01pm
Well keep waiting for an explanation on the lack of infrastructure improvements during the free flowing 90’s.
I suspect the companies are waiting for the right opportunity. Perhaps something like the ability to putting a surge charge on the customers bill to cover cost for government mandated regulations will spur the improvements.
My wireless company has such a surge charge, so why should the ISP be left out of this consumer ripoff.
Tommy
January 22nd, 2009
at 5:46am
It seems each and everytime Comcast is charged or slapped by FCC we see it on our bills.But if you think about,they’ve done no different than other big companies.And i mean even them not broadband related.When the money was flowing none of them put the money where it did the most good.Now the customers and citizens paying for it.Tax payers pay in many ways.Bail out the companies that jack our bills up.A win for them a loss for us.
jayw654
May 28th, 2009
at 1:25pm
yeah, i dislike bill increases also. I think it would be better if the US government would simply cease the Comcast network. Then remove all of the traffic shaping. The only downfall to this is the US government has a problem of eaves dropping on everyone but that can easily be handled through the use of encryption.
the oracle
May 28th, 2009
at 1:45pm
Tommy, jayw654, first, thanks for the comments. I only remember seeing one person ever express any degree of satisfaction with Comcast. It’s too bad that these limited monopolies are allowed to exist - that might be something for the new FCC to address also.
As far as I’m concerned, Verizon is the only company who is really trying to increase the quality of the broadband available in the US - and as we’ve seen, it’s still nowhere near as fast as in parts of Europe, or as cheap as in Japan.