Andre Yoskowitz
12 Jul 2008 1:55
Kevin J. Martin, the head of the Federal Communications Commission announced today that he is recommending that the ISP Comcast be punished for violating net neutrality laws.
Over the past year Comcast has gotten in trouble for throttling BitTorrent traffic, without informing its users that it was doing so. The Internet traffic was also only blocked for users using file sharing software.
“The commission has adopted a set of principles that protects consumers access to the Internet,” said Martin,“We found that Comcast’s actions in this instance violated our principles.”
Comcast, in what has become standard, denied that the ISP had blocked Internet content purposely but instead said it was part of “carefully limited measures that Comcast takes to manage traffic on its broadband network." The company also noted it was part of a strategy to "ensure that all customers receive quality service."
The measure on whether to impose penalties on Comcast will occur on August 1st and the commissioner will be circulating his order recommending penalties tomorrow. His order will require Comcast to stop all blocking of Internet traffic as well as "provide details to the commission on the extent and manner in which the practice was used and give consumers detailed information on how it planned to manage its network in the future."