Things just got a bit more complicated with the Internet service business as federal regulators are getting ready to take serious action against Internet providers that meddle with their customers’ liberties.

On Friday, Kevin J. Martin, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman, said that Comcast should be penalized for the way it had interfered with the connection quality of its users. While he strongly supports the network neutrality cause, cable and phone carriers, obviously enough, feel that no such rule is needed and that companies should be allowed to manage their networks however they choose.

Kevin J. Martin’s recommendation, if approved by the entire commission, would not make Comcast pay up a fine, but it would force the company to be more transparent regarding its past customer-oriented practices. The issue will most probably be decided on by August 1, when an important FCC meeting is scheduled.

In March, Comcast announced the restructuring of Internet traffic management, thus handling all data equally and objectively. The statement followed a rather uncomfortable situation in which the company was accused of having interfered with the traffic towards certain Internet file-sharing services.

Last November, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission received a complaint against Comcast from a coalition of public interest groups. The company was accused of violating FCC policy by blocking peer-to-peer Internet traffic.

Although initially the company declared that it was not breaking any of the principles of "net neutrality", it was eventually forced to admit that it does indeed significantly slow down certain peer-to-peer transfers. The move was considered to be necessary in order to prevent the entire network from slowing down because of a few customers that were uploading large amounts of data.