fcc

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says it has found a solution to legal road-blocking of its powers over broadband providers. It will use a technicality to enforce the " net neutrality " principles, but relax its controls over other ... aspects of broadband. The legal saga involves Comcast intentionally slowing down Internet access to customers who were using peer-to-peer filesharing services such as those based on the BitTorrent system. Many people using BitTorrent do so to share copyrighted files without permission, but the system itself is not illegal and can be used just as easily ... (view more)

A former presidential advisor has called for the US government to reclassify the legal status of the Internet. It follows concerns that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may not have the statutory authority to enforce "net neutrality" ... principles or to go ahead with proposed plans to expand Internet access. The FCC has historically sought to uphold the idea of net neutrality. This is the principle that, with the exception of illegal material, all Internet traffic should be treated equally by carriers. This would mean, for example, that an Internet service provider couldn't charge ... (view more)

It remains unclear whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be able to bring its proposed net neutrality rules into force. Another politician has launched a bid to block the FCC from further regulating the net, while an Internet ... carrier claims the commission doesn't have the legal power to bring the rules into force. Last week, the FCC voted unanimously to adopt plans for new rules enforcing the existing principle of net neutrality. The overall idea is that Internet carriers should treat all traffic equally. In practice that could mean cable firms and ISPs would not be allowed ... (view more)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has backed plans to introduce laws on net neutrality . Unfortunately, they face political and legal challenges which appear to have the support of major Internet carriers. In a unanimous vote, the ... five-strong commission agreed to give force to the principles of net neutrality: that Internet providers treat all legal Internet traffic equally . That would outlaw practices such as slowing down access to people using peer-to-peer file-sharing, or blocking applications from running on cellphone networks. The vote doesn't guarantee the rules will come ... (view more)

Some cable and telecommunications providers are trying to return to the days of usage-based pricing for Internet connections. AT ... (view more)

The U.S. government is considering a plan that would prevent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from banning actions online that 'hog' bandwidth. The government's proposal would change how Internet providers such as AT ... (view more)

According to reports, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Kevin Martin, is on his way out. It could spell an end for controversial plans to create a nationwide free wireless broadband system. It was widely expected that newly ... elected President Barack Obama would have replaced Martin as chairman upon taking office. (Martin would have remained as one of the five commissioners as that position was guaranteed until 2011.) Martin has opted to resign effective January 20th (Obama's inauguration day) and will take up a post at the Aspen Institute, a non-partisan think-tank. ( ... (view more)

The battle lines have now been drawn clearly. Wide-open Internet usage could easily, and soon, become a thing of the past. On October 1, one of the nation's largest Internet providers will implement a new bandwidth limit policy for its residential ... customers. According to reports, by this time next month Comcast will introduce a 250 gigabyte-per-month limit. (Source: nytimes.com ) The Comcast move follows a recent dispute about its 'throttling' policy where the company limited bandwidth for customers using the BitTorrent file-sharing program. On August 1, the Federal Communications Commission ... (view more)

It appears increasingly likely that Comcast will face a formal rebuke from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its 'throttling' policy in which Internet access was deliberately slowed for those using peer-to-peer download services. The ... FCC won't announce any decision until its monthly meeting on Friday, but Reuters reports five of the nine commissioners have already agreed to uphold a complaint of throttling. (Source: guardian.co.uk ) That won't come as a major surprise, since FCC chairman Kevin Martin had already announced he considered Comcast's actions wrong and that he'd be ... (view more)