Some Neutrality Supporters Hope Headlines Spur FCC Action
Some network-neutrality rule backers hope to see recent headlines on network operators’ traffic-management methods move the FCC to act favorably on a series of petitions and complaints. Web video distributor Vuze.com asked the FCC Thursday to open a rulemaking that sets “parameters of reasonable network management” and bars network management strategies that “block, degrade or unreasonably discriminate against lawful Internet applications, content or technologies.” Vuze’s petition closely follows complaints by public interest and consumer groups over Comcast handling of some peer-to-peer file transfers (WID Nov 2 p4).
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“This is no longer a ’solution in search of a problem,'” said Jay Monahan, Vuze general counsel. “We're hopeful that having those sorts of facts in the record will be the thing that helps us get some sort of action on our petition.” The Vuze petition asks the FCC to define what it meant when it exempted “reasonable network management” to broadband and Internet policies in a 2005 policy statement. “The scope of the network management exception to the Internet Policy statement is one of the most important questions for the Commission to answer,” said Christopher Libertelli, senior director of government and regulator affairs for Skype. “Vuze.com’s petition and the related complaint against Comcast’s P2P blocking puts this issue directly in front of the Commission.”
Rather than file its own complaint, Vuze asked for a broader rulemaking because it wants more clarity on the issue, Monahan said. The complaints against Comcast draw attention to “a specific set of facts and a specific company,” he said. “In order to give us certainty as a business going forward, we still thought there was a need for broad-based regulations that would govern other companies and other things companies might want to do.”
Cable operators and other Internet service providers can manage broadband traffic without violating the FCC’s four network neutrality principles, NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow told reporters Wednesday. The rarity of complaints about network management shows “there is actually no real problem out there,” he said. Peer-to-peer programs soak up much of broadband service providers’ capacity, added McSlarrow. “The ability and the flexibility to allow networks to manage those networks to improve the performance for all users as opposed to the few who might be downloading 24-7 is critical,” he said. “Broadband networks are not an unlimited resource.”
The commission may not take up Vuze’s petition because its scope is so vast, said cable consultant Steve Effros. “If the commission were to seriously get into this area, it wouldn’t affect just Comcast,” he said. “It would affect everybody that ran a network. It would be a long, complicated, probably unsuccessful process because every day network management changes.” More likely, the latest FCC filings aim to reinvigorate the net neutrality campaign, he said. “As usual, it confuses the issue, because the net neutrality advocates would like to make people believe that network managers or owners are prohibiting access to certain things on the network, and they're not.”
The string of recent petitions offers the FCC several avenues for taking up issues raised by Comcast’s traffic shaping policies, said Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn. “The Commission now has a variety of options that allow it to act to prevent discrimination on the Internet disguised as ‘network management,'” Sohn said. “We hope the FCC acts promptly.”
Vuze has been harmed by Comcast traffic shaping tactics, which send false “reset” packets during peer-to-peer file sharing sessions, ending transfers, it said in the petition. “Independent content creators who happen to be Comcast subscribers are not able to easily upload content to Vuze via the Comcast broadband network, frustrating their ability to distribute and possibly monetize their content,” the petition said. “Comcast’s actions thereby limit the amount of content available to consumers.”
Ordinary Internet users shouldn’t be forced to subsidize companies providing bandwidth-intensive service like HD online video, Effros said. “Some of these folks are going to have to share the bill and they don’t like the idea,” he said. “It wasn’t part of their business plan.”