E-Commerce Blog

By a vote of 3-2, the Federal Communications Commission has sharply rebuked Comcast for its network management practices. It found not only that Comcast’s practices were invasive, but also that the company was likely motivated by anticompetitive issues. “The Commission found that Comcast monitors its customers’ connections using deep packet inspection and then determines how it will route some connections based not on their destinations but on their contents,” said the FCC in a statement.

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FCC Gives Comcast a Good Scolding

Reports continue to circulate that the FCC has enough votes to rule that Comcast illegally blocked traffic between peer-to-peer Internet applications and that the government will soon set down guidelines for the Internet service provider that could serve as a precedent regarding the hotly debated topic of Net neutrality. The FCC could issue a ruling later this week, following reports in national media that Democratic commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps have joined Chairman Kevin Martin in deciding that Comcast should face some kind of action or sanction.

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FCC to Hammer Comcast on Throttling Shenanigans

For as long as consumers have had high-speed Internet at home, they have surfed the Web as much as they wanted, downloading any content while paying their service provider a flat monthly fee. Those days may be ending. Internet service providers, especially cable companies, are eying new pricing models to address the rapidly growing popularity of such applications as streaming online video and the sharing of large files. These programs can eat up bandwidth and cause bottlenecks, slowing service across networks.

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Heavy Bandwidth Users May Face Ticking Meter

Advocates of Net neutrality are preparing to chalk up their first victory following press reports that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has recommended prohibiting cable giant Comcast from blocking Web traffic between peer-to-peer networks. The recommendation, which still requires action from the full commission, could be precedent-setting; all Internet service providers would be prohibited from prioritizing certain Web traffic in their efforts to manage the flow of Internet data.

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FCC May Curb Comcast’s Internet Choke-Chain Antics

Comcast on Thursday announced an agreement with Vonage Holdings, the big Internet phone service provider, to develop ways to manage Internet traffic without damaging each other’s businesses. There will no change in the billing rates for customers of either company, but Vonage officials believe that this will ensure high-quality Internet phone service for their customers. The agreement comes as FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is considering fines or some other enforcement action against Comcast because of its once-secret actions to target heavy users of BitTorrent’s file-sharing software.

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Comcast Seeks to Stave Off FCC Oversight With Vonage Deal