Commissioners Likely to Hear from Neutrality Supporters Thursday
Commissioners may hear testimony on broadband network management from members of many endorsers of net neutrality rules at Thursday’s FCC hearing at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. (CD April 8 p8). KPFA(FM) Berkeley and the Media Alliance, Media Center, One East Palo Alto and other local groups are conferring to prepare members to testify, said Free Press, a net neutrality rule backer. Thursday’s hearing is “an important opportunity for the public to participate in the high-stakes debate,” Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver said in a press release. Internet service providers and Web sites, meanwhile, are talking about how to prevent so-called bandwidth hogs from grabbing network capacity.
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Thursday’s event will serve as the FCC monthly meeting. A scheduled meeting was canceled at the last minute Thursday. Late last week the commission confirmed the broadband hearing will be combined with a monthly meeting, as at a similar February hearing in Cambridge, Mass.
Internet service providers, Web content companies and others met this month with commissioners and aides on the FCC inquiry into Comcast network management and whether it blocked BitTorrent peer to peer file transfers, ex partes show. But FCC Chairman Kevin Martin hasn’t circulated an order among commissioners on whether Comcast violated the regulator’s net neutrality principles, said an agency source. Comcast has said it didn’t block anything and is working with BitTorrent.
Web video site Vuze, which requested an agency rulemaking, wants the FCC to adopt rules on “reasonable network management” covering all ISPs, Vuze representatives said in meetings with Wireline Bureau Chief Dana Shaffer and an aide to Commissioner Deborah Tate. RIAA Chairman Mitch Bainwol met with Commissioner Robert McDowell to oppose rules limiting ISPs’ ability to discourage illegal transmission of music files.
No regulations are needed, Comcast said in a letter last week to the commissioners. It cited Pando findings that network protocols for hastening P2P transfers work well on many ISPs, including Comcast. The cable operator said its participation in the study reflects its “commitment to a continuing dialogue with other participants in the Internet marketplace to ensure that all of us can continue to deliver ever-improving services.” Many ISPs and Web sites are collaborating quietly on how to handle consumers who download and transfer large numbers of files, industry lawyers said. “They want to cooperate to manage the network in such a way that they can meet customer expectations and avoid having a few customers disrupt the experience of the broader customer base,” said telecommunications attorney To-Quyen Truong. “It takes a lot of time and cooperation to work out these solutions and we may not hear an announcement about every advancement that is achieved in that process.”