FCC opens proceeding on bandwith throttling issue

[complacent]

Ars Technica article hmah.

The FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau is looking for comment on a petition seeking a declaratory ruling that "the practice by broadband service providers of degrading peer-to-peer traffic violates the FCC's Internet Policy Statement" and that such practices fall outside of what the FCC calls "reasonable network management."

The second proceeding is intended to determine what, exactly, constitutes reasonable network management by ISPs. The petitioner, Vuze, Inc., wants the FCC to rule that such management prohibits broadband providers from blocking, degrading, or "unreasonably" discriminating against "lawful Internet applications, content, or technologies."

Under the FCC's 2005 Internet Policy Statement (PDF), ISPs are allowed to engage in "reasonable network management." At the same time, subscribers are also allowed to access lawful content as well as run applications and services of their choice, and connect legal devices to the network.

Vuze argues that ISPs should be able to manage traffic, but any management needs to be targeted at specific network impact rather than a class of applications (e.g., BitTorrent) and be completely transparent to end users. Comcast and other ISPs are reluctant to divulge exactly what measures they take to shape traffic.

Comcast executive vice president David L. Cohen defended his company's practices in a statement sent to Ars. "We look forward to responding to the FCC inquiries regarding our broadband network management," said Cohen. "We believe our practices are in accordance with the FCC's policy statement on the Internet where the Commission clearly recognized that reasonable network management is necessary for the good of all customers."

Cohen also reiterated Comcast's position that it doesn't block traffic. "Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services," he said, pledging to work with the FCC to "bring more transparency for consumers regarding broadband network management."

[scheherazade]

I want the carriers to be as weak as possible.

Otherwise, the inevitable future is that they will filter your traffic and charge you per content.



Example :
_______________________________________


You get unlimited access!!! Only $49.999999999 a month
*certain traffic costs extra.







*
music files : $1 per file
emails : $0.50 per email
web pages : $0.10 per web site
purchase real-time VOIP traffic prioritization for only $10 / month.

_______________________________________

That's right folks.
Keep the ISP's traffic-ignorant.

-scheherazade