Congressman raps FCC for Comcast censure
By Erna Mahyuni
Ahead of a proposed net neutrality action against Comcast, a disgruntled congressman has written FCC accusing it of "essentially regulating the internet."
Strange accusation that, when essentially the Federal Communications Commission’s Censure is against Comcast’s net neutrality violations. The company is accused of faking internet traffic to limit peer-to-peer file sharing among its customers. Republican minority leader Rep. John Boehner sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, arguing that the government should stay out of the net neutrality debate and let the free market decide factors.
"It is this market-based, self-governing nature of the internet that is the key to its success," Boehner wrote in the letter. "Your heavy-handed attempts to inject the FCC into the middle of that process threaten to hijack the evolution of the internet to everyone’s detriment."
Comcast in its defence argued it only “delays” a small percentage of the huge bandwidth used by peer-to-peer file sharing on its networks. And under the commission’s traffic management protocols, Comcast supposedly has the right to do so. "We believe our actions, taken in good faith in response to consumers’ concerns, further confirm the wisdom of the commission’s long-standing policy showing regulatory restraint," said Comcast in a July 10 letter to the FCC.
What exactly did Comcast do? It’s reported that it would send stop signals via fake RST packets to file sharing programs, according to independent tests. It announced that it would switch to a new network management technique by the end of the year for managing bandwidth use and congestion.
It is a strange thing that to keep the internet free, regulation needs to be in place. To allow market forces to serve as controls of the internet would likely put the consumer at mercy of the ISPs. For it is not market forces that will control the ISP’s decisions but the pursuit of profit, often to the detriment of consumers.
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August 1st, 2008
Boehner is absolutely right. And this is not a partisan issue; if they understand the truth, consumers — regardless of party — would recognize and reject the “network neutrality” agenda as an attempt to regulate the Internet under false pretenses. Comcast has not only done no “harm” to the Internet — as Gigi Sohn disingenuously claims — but was protecting the quality of users’ Internet service by preventing bandwidth hogs from degrading their service.
The FCC’s actions have already deterred broadband investment and stand to harm broadband competition. Competitive and independent ISPs — those which are not cable or telephone companies — will be hit first and hardest. But the inside-the-Beltway Washington lobbyists, such as “Free” Press, Public Knowledge, and MAP, don’t care. They’ll declare a victory because they believe that regulating the Internet gives them power. No matter that it will harm consumers and open the door to government censorship of the Net. For a more in depth explanation of what’s up, click on the link above.