As a result of the conclusion reached by the Federal Communications Commission regarding Comcast’s discriminatory management of Internet traffic, the company might be forced to stop its efforts of blocking the transmission of certain content.
According to the FCC, which presented Comcast today with a 67-page Order, these actions are considered "inconsistent with the concept of an open and accessible Internet," and therefore must be immediately terminated.
Over the next 30 days, Comcast must appear before the FCC with all the details of its "unreasonable network management practices" and also with a complete strategy for handling the situation by the end of the year. The Commission requested the help of the free press and also other interested members of the public, in order to ensure a successful monitoring process over Comcast’s efforts for resolving the matter. The company’s network management practices will be constantly monitored until the end of the year when an evaluation of the improvements will be carried out.
Comcast’s officials did not rush to make any statements and the only response was sent through Charlie Douglas, the company’s spokesperson, who said "As you can imagine, we'll need to review the order […] so all we can say right now is 'We are examining the order and evaluating our options'."
Comcast repeatedly stated that its traffic management, which deals with approximately 14.4 million Internet users, is completely nondiscriminatory. Still, it admitted that a certain flow management plan must be made in order to make sure that the Web accessibility is not slowed or blocked for any of its customers.