Activists concerned that Internet providers are secretly planning to muck about with the Internet and violate “net neutrality” principles got some good/bad news today, when another report surfaced about cable companies’ blocking traffic.
As the Associated Press noted, a German research team has found [1] that Cox Communications also appears to be blocking or slowing some Internet traffic, similar to what Comcast Corp. is already under investigation by the FCC for doing.
Based on data provided by 8,000 volunteers who downloaded software to their PCs that simulate peer-to-peer file sharing software BitTorrent, the German researchers found that “most (573 of 599) U.S. hosts that observed blocking are located in Comcast and Cox networks.” Researchers found that Comcast’s blocking appeared to have at all times of the day, not just evening hours when networks would more likely be used more heavily.
Volunteers using DSL Internet (which is provided by phone companies) didn’t show any problems and no other countries other than Singapore had significant blocking, the researchers found.
Cox didn’t immediately return calls for comment about the allegations.
“We have acknowledged that we manage peer-to-peer traffic in a limited manner to minimize network congestion,” Comcast said in a written statement. “While we believe our current network management approach was a reasonable choice, we are now working with a variety of companies including BitTorrent and confirm our March announcement that we will move to a protocol-agnostic network management technique no later than December 31, 2008.”
The FCC has already held two hearings about Comcast’s alleged blocking and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin hasn’t ruled out another.
“The FCC is always concerned about allegations that broadband consumers aren’t able to reach any legal content on the Internet they choose,” said Rob Kenny, an FCC spokesman. “If we receive any complaints of this nature, we will review them expeditiously.”
Over at Free Press, the non-profit advocacy group that filed one of the original complaints at the FCC about Comcast’s alleged Internet traffic blocking, policy director Ben Scott said “We are considering our options and (filing a complaint) is definitely one of them.”