Comcast late Sept. 19 filed its network management report and compliance with the Federal Communications Commission as a result of the FCC order finding the company violated the Commission’s open-network policy statement. The following statement is attributable to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:
“We appreciate the time and effort Comcast has taken to compile a network management plan. It is a very detailed and very technical document that deserves close scrutiny from the FCC and from private-sector observers. It appears that the plan does not discriminate against any particular protocols and does not involve using Deep Packet Inspection.
“We need to ensure the plan does not harm consumers. However, there are a number of questions raised to which we do not have the answers. Why, for example, does Comcast need both its real-time network management system and the 250 GB monthly cap on consumer usage? Will consumers end up paying more for less bandwidth to use? Is it fair to consumers to punish them based on usage lower than the advertised speed? Is it a problem to punish a consumer now for what transpired on the network 15 minutes ago, even if a customer not contributing to congestion at the moment? Will there be anticompetitive aspects to limiting consumer use of video over the Internet, but not on the Comcast cable network?
“Given the company’s past practices, we want to make certain the Commission not only finds the answers to these and other questions but continues to monitor Comcast’s behavior.”
Comcast’s FCC filings are here.
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.