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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.
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