U.S.FCC Aims to Punish Comcast Over Net Neutrality

[engine]

U.S.FCC Aims [uk.reuters.com]to Punish Comcast Over Net Neutrality

The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said on Thursday he will recommend that Comcast Corp be punished for violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet, The Associated Press reported.

[thecoalman]

Comcast has denied it blocks individual traffic and said the use of network management is essential to avoid congestion and impairment of online video applications like Veoh or voice-over-Internet Protocol services like Vonage.

Which is exactly the reason this action is justified. ISP's should not be allowed to decide who gets the bandwidth.

[incrediBILL]

The backlash potential here is Comcast just throttles everyone down just to make sure the network doesn't choke and you can kiss really high bandwidth applications g'bye.

Personally, I don't think any of it matters because most of the video servers get so overloaded these days it's nearly unwatchable at times. Mostly I click pause and come back once the entire video has downloaded just to avoid the annoyance factor.

[rise2it]

Punished...um...yeah.

Their customers will be PUNISHED, not the company. The company will pass the penalty/fines along to the consumer.

[thecoalman]

incrediBILL the option there of course is to provided a tiered pricing scheme or throttling connections after they go over X amount bandwidth each month. I don't watch online video that much so why should I pay for it? At the moment I'd be happy with a connection that was say 2000/500. Although i do love the 16000/1500 realistically I rarely need it and the times it does come in handy I could do without it.

[Vali]

Problem is, they will not lower the price for people that don't use the bandwidth, and just bill more the people that use more bandwidth.

Where I am, we have 20GB limit per month, and 7$ for every extra GB.
Just surfing the web (email/forums/info sites) and listening to some online radio gets to 16-18GB per month. (so you can forget HD/live movies... where you use 20GB per day)

[Strapworks]

I really don't like Comcast (I am an unhappy customer), but I have to say that they are trying to make an effort to solve a situation. I think they definitely took the stupid solution and the easy way out, but they are trying.
I don't think they should be fined, but they do need to be forced into choosing another option.
I am all for having tiered price options based on your monthly usage.
I remember AOL back in the day where you paid by the minute, how would that control internet usage today, LOL.
Everyone wants everything in a gash darn hurry and technology is just not up to the task.

[goodroi]

I agree that Comcast will probably just pass along any fine they get. I think the more important item to come out of this is Comcast and other ISPs will be forced to become more transparent and admit when they take actions that impact consumers. Consumers will be able to make a more informed decision on which provider to use.

[frontpage]

incrediBILL the option there of course is to provided a tiered pricing scheme or throttling connections after they go over X amount bandwidth each month.

Comcast already has a tiered pricing scheme in place.

Performance PLUS with PowerBoostŪ (8 Mbps) for new customers* - $67.95*

Performance (6 Mbps) for new Comcast customers* - $59.95*

Performance PLUS with PowerBoostŪ (8 Mbps) for current customers* - $52.95*

Performance (6 Mbps) for current Comcast customers* - $42.95*

New CHSI Customer 4 times faster than 1.5 Mbps DSL - $19.99*

[lawman]

frontpage, I think thecoalman is talking about tiered pricing for bandwidth usage, not download speed.