FCC Heads To Harvard For Public Hearing On Broadband

FCC will examine broadband network management practices, net neutrality.

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/12/2008 1:07:00 PM

The FCC will hold its next public meeting in Cambridge, Mass., on Feb. 26, the commission announced today, so it can hear from a panel of experts on broadband network management practices.

The meeting will be held at the Harvard law school, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's alma mater.

The commission is currently investigating complaints against cable and telephone networks' broadband traffic management, including allegations they blocked e-mails and impeded peer-to-peer traffic. It also has an open inquiry into network management.

The FCC has guidelines saying that networks should not discriminate in the provision of broadband service or applications, which it adopted at the same time it scrapped mandatory access rules that it concluded did not apply to the provision of broadband by cable or telcos.

The network neutrality issue has heated up of late, with forums planned in Washington this week and the news that House Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) plans to introduce a bill Wednesday that would enshrine network neutrality principles in law, said a source.

Markey introduced a similar bill in 2006.