Making good on Chairman Kevin Martin's promise at CES last week, the FCC today issued its inquiry into whether network operator interference with P2P applications is a violation of its policy, established in 1995, that discourages network owners from interfering with services or content except when "reasonable network management" practices require such interference.
This inquiry is a direct result of a petition for declaratory ruling filed by consumer and public interest groups last Fall following the heavily publicized report by an AP reporter that Comcast slows down uploads when consumers use P2P applications. The groups asked the FCC to declare that such interference is a policy violation.
Hoping to deal with similar complaints, the FCC also issued two other inquiries. The FCC put out for comment a petition for rulemaking by P2P-powered online video entertainment service Vuze that asks the FCC to establish rules that more precisely define what constitutes "reasonable network management." The docket number and deadlines (comments due February 13 and replies due March 14) for the Vuze inquiry are the same as those for the bigger P2P inquiry.
In an interesting move, the Commission further asked for comments on a conceptually related petition filed by consumer and free press groups which seeks to clarify that text messaging services are commercial mobile services (or Title II services) subject to non-discrimination requirements. This petition was spurred by a highly publicized incident last Fall when Verizon Wireless blocked the delivery of short code, opt-in messages by NARAL.
Gigi Sohn, President of Public Knowledge, which was instrumental in getting the Commission to act on these petitions, is pleased that the FCC is at least looking into this cluster of issues that center on one key question: how much power do network operators have to limit or block certain kinds of content or applications? In a statement Sohn said "these inquiries will go a long way to setting out a road map for determining who will control the Internet, and whether texting will be seen in the same light as wireless voice services."
Cynthia Brumfield at 9:07 PM|Comments(0)
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