At a hearing yesterday in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin weighed in on Internet service providers that engage in "network management" practices that involve degrading service for some types of traffic—like file sharing applications—in favor of others. While allowing that service providers should be able to take reasonable steps to make sure their networks run efficiently, "the Commission is ready, willing, and able to step in if necessary," Martin wrote in a statement (PDF). "Consumers need to know if and how network management practices distinguish between different applications, so that consumers can configure their own applications and systems properly."
The hearing comes in response to allegations cable operator Comcast deliberately interferes with traffic between users of file-sharing applications like BitTorrent and Gnutella, violating the principle of "net neutrality" wherein all Internet traffic is to be treated with the same priority. The issue received wide attention following an Associated Press story detailing how Comcast was shutting down file sharing connections with forged reset packets; Comcast initially denied the allegations, but then admitted it sometimes "delays" file sharing traffic to ensure its network operates well for everyone.
At the hearing, the FCC heard testimony from Comcast and Verizon Communications, as well as law professors who filed the complaint with the FCC as well as open Internet advocates.
The FCC’s stance to date has been the service providers may engage in legitimate network management, so long as those practices are transparent. FCC commissioner Michael Copps has advocated a "systematic, expeditious case-by-case approach for adjudicating claims of discrimination" (PDF) against ISPs, so both providers and network users have clear guidelines for what constitutes acceptable use and management.
