On Thursday, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission had its widely anticipated hearing on broadband access and management practices.

The concerns regarded whether broadband Internet providers were open with customers about the way they are managing their networks and if they deliver on the speeds they promise.

The FCC Chairman Kevin Martin expressed his opinion on the commission’s task to investigate the management of broadband networks by providers such as Comcast Corp. The FCC is currently looking into some reports sent by different consumer groups, which show that cable operator Comcast Corp has unreasonably blocked or hindered some file-sharing services. Programs such as BitTorrent, used to distribute TV shows and movies were unavailable.

"Application designers need to understand what will and what will not work on the network, and consumers must be fully informed about the exact nature of the service they are purchasing," Kevin Martin said according to Reuters.

He also added: "Particularly as broadband providers are trying to provide tiers of service, it's critical to make sure that we are understanding that the broadband network operators are able to deliver the speeds and service that they are selling."

Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters Guild of America, testified he was rather disappointed that the main technology at issue is not applied by ISPs to find and identify the people illegally exchanging music and video files.
The hearing had one main direction: to make sure that from now on all companies will be monitored and will be prevented from unfairly discriminating against some of their costumers.