FCC Gets Comcast Complaint

The formal request made by scholars from Yale, Harvard, and Stanford, follows an Associated Press report claiming that Comcast blocked or slowed down customers who use Bittorrent to download files.

The Associated Press, which ran a test over a period of months, has called the move “the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider.”

Some have tagged the petition a landmark, for the first time testing net neutrality: the principle that's meant to prevent ISP's from blocking or slowing down Internet traffic on their networks.

Comcast executives admitted last month, after receiving similar complaints, they had “delayed” users on P2P file sharing programs before, to conserve bandwidth, but are denying they have stopped access altogether.

"Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services, and no one has demonstrated otherwise,” said the provider in a statement.

The FCC announced in 2005 they would regulate ISP's to ensure they operate neutrally and would not hesitate to address providers violating net neutrality principles.

The complaint asks the FCC to keep good on its word, seeing that Comcast clarifies its bandwidth policy, and that Internet Service providers are kept from interfering in the future.