Kevin Martin, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said that he will ask the commission to sanction Comcast, the largest cable company in the US, for the way it manages its network’s traffic by slowing down the connections that some people using certain services have.

The issue came to the FCC’s attention when a consumer group filled a complaint saying that Comcast was slowing down the upload speed of some users who used peer2peer services such as BitTorent. While the company said that it used to do this only for those subscribers who kept sharing large amounts of data, which could have resulted in other people having a less satisfying browsing experience, some studies have shown that Comcast used the same practice for regular users of the services also.

Kevin Martin considers that by acting like this, Comcast has proved that it does not practice a “reasonable traffic management,” which the FCC requires from internet companies. However, there are no regulations saying exactly what can be considered a “reasonable traffic management” and what not. This is exactly what Comcast is saying. The company argues that if there are no regulations, the Federal Communication Commission has no authority to sanction the company.

Mr. Martin said that his proposal does not seek to fine Comcast, since this would be the first time that such an issue is brought in front of the commission. Instead, Comcast would be asked to change the way it manages the traffic of its network, and would be given a deadline for doing so.

The FCC will get to vote this proposal at its meeting on August 1.