Vuze Seeks FCC Regulations on Network Management
Video-Content Site: Cable Operator Blocked Users’ Internet Traffic
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/15/2007 4:55:00 PM
Video-content site Vuze asked the Federal Communications Commission to weigh in on what it said was Comcast's "clandestine attempts to degrade and, in some cases, block its users' traffic for video including from PBS, Showtime, A&E [Network] and The History Channel.”
In a petition for rulemaking filed Wednesday, the site asked the FCC to "provide consumers, network operators and Internet businesses greater clarity regarding what to expect with respect to broadband-network-management practices."
A Comcast spokeswoman had no comment, but the nation's largest cable operator has said before that it uses established network-management practices to optimize the user experience for its customers.
Comcast has been under recent fire recently from network-neutrality backers, which want the FCC to establish rules prohibiting discrimination against content or applications by cable and phone networks. The commission currently has nondiscrimination guidelines and, the FCC majority argued, sufficient power to punish violators.
Comcast was also sued Thursday by a subscriber over its Internet management.
