The Channel Wire

April 22, 2008

The chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission sharply criticized Comcast Tuesday in testimony before a Senate Committee, saying the FCC had found that Comcast had restricted Internet traffic more broadly than first thought. Kevin Martin told the committee that it appears Comcast blocked network traffic more often than at times when the network was congested, as Comcast claimed.

Comcast had previously come in for criticism after it was disclosed the cable giant had deliberately blocked peer-to-peer file sharing applications such as BitTorrent during peak hours. Comcast denied such a practice.

But Martin disputed that claim. "The Commission has heard from several engineers and technical experts who have raised questions regarding the network management techniques used by Comcast for peer-to-peer traffic," Martin said in his prepared testimony to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. "Comcast appears to have utilized Internet equipment from Sandvine or something similar that is widely known to be a relatively inexpensive, blunt means to reduce peer-to-peer traffic by blocking certain traffic completely. In contrast, more modern equipment can be finely tuned to slow traffic to certain speeds based on various levels of congestion.

"Contary to some claims, It does not appear that this technique was used only to occasionally delay traffic at particular nodes suffering from network congestion at that time," Martin said. "Based on testimony we've received thus far, this equipment was typically deployed over a wider geographic area or system, and is not even capable of knowing when an individual ... segment of the network is congested. It appears that this equipment blocks the uploads of at least a large portion of subscribers in that part of the network, regardless of the actual levels of congestion at that particular time."

Comcast on Tuesday said its network management practices were a "reasonable choice" and said that it would switch to a new technique by the end of 2008, Reuters reported.

Martin also said he believes the FCC has the authority to enforce open network principles. "I also believe that the commission has a responsibility to enforce the (open-Internet) principles that it has already adopted," Martin said.