Fair Harvard? Hardly.
Martin Sandbags Comcast
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 2/25/2008 5:43:00 PM
Washington – Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin dragged his agency all the way to Harvard Law School on Monday to make the same point he’s made in just about every U.S. time zone: He dislikes and distrusts Comcast Corp.The Harvard session was billed as a discussion related to broadband network management practices. Instead, Martin decided to turn it into a federally sanctioned sandbagging of the country’s largest cable company. Martin let Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) take the first shots and then arrayed six Comcast-hostile witnesses against almost lonesome Comcast executive vice president David Cohen.
“It’s a pleasure to be here today as a participant and hopefully not the main course for your meal,” said Cohen, who received only tepid backing from University of Pennsylvania law professor Christopher Yoo.
The FCC is investigating Comcast for allegedly blocking bandwidth-hogging, peer-to-peer BitTorrent traffic. Comcast said it had delayed some traffic because abuses by a small minority had degraded service for other Comcast high-speed data customers at peak times.
Without reference to any FCC investigative findings, Martin repeatedly deployed the rhetoric and formulations of Comcast’s antagonists. Time and again, Martin used the word “blocked” to describe what took place on Comcast’s broadband network.
“To absolutely clear, we do not block any web sites or online applications, including [peer-to-peer],” Cohen said.
Based on the content of his questions and comments, Martin made it clear that Comcast had not engaged in reasonable network management practices, which the FCC has said network owners have a legitimate right to perform.
Martin suggested that Comcast violated the FCC’s broadband principles because customers had not been properly notified on ways Comcast would manage its network and what the boundaries were. He also suggested that Comcast’s efforts couldn’t have been legitimate because BitTorrent users hadn’t exceeded the bandwidth limits for which they had paid.
“These are very significant issues and we don’t take those allegations lightly,” Martin said. “I think it’s important to understand that the commission is ready, willing and able to step and, if necessary, correct practices that are ongoing today.”
One Web-based video provider took aim at Comcast by claiming that its management of BitTorrent traffic was designed to protect its cable TV business from Internet-sourced video competition.
“Let be clear here: We compete with Comcast in the delivery of video content over the Internet,” said Gilles BianRosa, CEO of Vuze Inc. The company has asked the FCC to adopt rules stating the limits of reasonable network management.
