By Clare Baldwin and Peter Kaplan
WASHINGTON/STANFORD, California (Reuters) -
The head of the
U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday the
agency would scrutinize whether broadband Internet providers
were open with customers about how they are managing their
networks and make good on the speeds they promise.
Speaking at an agency hearing on broadband services, FCC
Chairman Kevin Martin said the commission should look closely
at the two factors as it grapples with what constitutes
"reasonable" management of broadband networks by providers such
as Comcast Corp.
The FCC is looking into complaints from consumer groups
that cable operator Comcast Corp has unreasonably blocked or
hindered some file-sharing services, such as BitTorrent, that
distribute TV shows and movies.
"Application designers need to understand what will and
what will not work on the network, and consumers must be fully
informed about the exact nature of the service they are
purchasing," Martin said in comments at the hearing.
"Particularly as broadband providers are trying to provide
tiers of service, it's critical to make sure that we are
understanding that the broadband network operators are able to
deliver the speeds and service that they are selling," Martin
said.
Martin and the FCC's other four commissioners held a
hearing at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley
to get input on what constitutes "reasonable" network
management.
Martin said at a previous hearing on the subject that he
was disturbed Comcast did not disclose more to customers and
application developers about the way it manages traffic on its
network.
Subsequently last month, Comcast announced it would change
the way it manages its network and cooperate with BitTorrent
and other critics to resolve the dispute.
On Tuesday Comcast said it will partner with a second
file-sharing company and help create a "bill of rights" for
consumers and Internet service providers.
The dispute over so-called "network neutrality" pits
open-Internet advocates against some service providers such as
Comcast, which say they need to take reasonable steps to manage
traffic on their networks.
Comcast, which has more than 13 million broadband
subscribers, has denied impairing some applications and has
said it merely manages the system to deal with network
congestion for the good of all users.
The commissioners heard testimony from a number of experts,
ranging from a software engineer and a songwriter to a law
professor and consumer advocate, on how far network operators
should be allowed to go in managing their networks.
Martin said Comcast and other broadband providers had been
invited to take part in the hearing but chose not to attend.
Comcast said in a statement on Thursday that it had
appeared at the previous commission hearing and "felt issues
specific to us were well covered at the first hearing and the
focus of this event should be broader than any individual
company's issues."
Martin said networks could discriminate against individual
applications in certain cases such as child pornography. The
key question, he said, would be whether their actions "further
a legitimate purpose."
The commission's two Democrats said called for the FCC to
stake out strong position that the agency will not tolerate
unreasonable discrimination against particular content and
software applications.
"Consumers don't want the Internet to become just another
version of old media," said commissioner Jonathan Adelstein.
The two Republicans on the commission said the FCC should
take charges of anti-competitive tactics seriously, but they
said the issue was better settled by network engineers in the
private marketplace rather than the government.
"The point is that the Internet has flourished by operating
under the principle that engineers should solve engineering
problems, not politicians and bureaucrats," said Republican
commissioner Robert McDowell.
(Reporting by Peter Kaplan, editing by Richard Chang)
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