CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Federal regulators on Monday said they are ready to discipline Internet service providers who secretly favor certain types of data traffic, such as Web surfing, over others, such as file sharing.
At a hearing over allegations that Comcast Corp. engaged in traffic discrimination, the Federal Communications Commission chairman said the complaints underscore the need to enforce the FCC’s broad principles intended to promote so-called “Net neutrality.”
“The commission is ready, willing and able to step in if necessary to correct any practices that are ongoing today,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in opening statements of the hearing at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Martin said service providers should be allowed to take reasonable steps to make efficient use of their networks at a time when consumers’ growing appetite for Web video threatens to bump up against networks’ capacity limits. But he said such management policies must be disclosed.
“Consumers need to know if and how network-management practices distinguish between different applications, so they can configure their own applications and systems properly,” Martin said.
Consumer groups and a provider of online video have filed complaints alleging Comcast hampered traffic between users without notice, violating the Internet’s tradition of equal treatment of traffic. Two of the groups also asked the FCC to fine Comcast.
The issue got attention after an Associated Press story in October documented Comcast’s practices. Comcast later acknowledged it sometimes delays file-sharing traffic as a way to keep Web traffic flowing.
File-sharing applications, such as BitTorrent and the original Napster, have been a tool for piracy of copyrighted content but are also used as a cheap route for companies to distribute large files, such as movies.
Commissioner Michael Copps, a champion of open-Internet policies, called for “clear rules of the road for those who operate on the edge of the networks — consumers and entrepreneurs — and those who operate the network.”
The FCC heard testimony from open-Internet advocates, law professors and representatives of Comcast and rival Verizon Communications Inc. as they seek to write regulations. Meanwhile, Congress is considering legislation to address how much freedom Internet providers should have to block or delay content on their networks.
