Web Group Hits Comcast with FCC Complaint Over P2P Blocking

Internet advocacy groups are none too pleased with Comcast. The SavetheInternet.com coalition and several academics on Thursday filed a complaint with the FCC calling on the commission to stop Comcast from violating customer rights in the wake of reports that the ISP is cutting off service to file-sharing services.

Comcast earlier this year came under fire for cutting service to bandwidth hogs, and last month the Associated Press printed a story in which it accused Comcast of using software from Sandvine to block customer access to P2P services like BitTorrent and Gnutella. Comcast admitted to "delaying" P2P traffic when traffic levels were high, but denied that P2P access was being blocked.






That "network management" explanation apparently didn't sit well with Internet advocates. "Comcast's defense is bogus," said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press.

The FCC needs to declare the blocking of P2P networks a violation of an FCC Internet policy that guarantees consumer access to all content, applications and services, according to a petition filed with the FCC.

Comcast denied any wrongdoing.

"Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services, and no one has demonstrated otherwise," David L. Cohen, executive vice president at Comcast, said in a statement. "We engage in reasonable network management to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience, and we do so consistently with FCC policy."

The FCC's Internet policy acknowledges that the Web is subject to reasonable network management, Cohen said. "The commission clearly recognized that network management is necessary by ISPs for the good of all customers."

Advocates remained unconvinced.

"The Commission has a choice," said Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge. "It can either protect consumers from the abuses of telephone and cable companies, or it can walk away and let the telephone and cable companies chip away at the free and open Internet little by little until they can control consumer use of the network as they please."

The petition was filed by Free Press, Public Knowledge, Media Access Project, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School and the Berkman Center for Internet