Thursday, October 29, 2009
Predictably, FCC Action on Comcast Spurs No End of Whining
The Federal Communications Commission likes to describe the enforcement action it took against Comcast for its overzealous network management techniques as “modest.” Which is an apt description, since the FCC measure really contained no substantive punishment. Certainly, requiring Comcast to disclose more information about its traffic management practices seems a mere slap on the wrist for a company that deliberately interfered with BitTorrent traffic in violation of Internet openness principles. But Comcast, which wants a court to reverse and vacate the FCC decision, feels that even it was too much.
They don’t call Sen. John McCain a maverick for nothing. Just hours after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski officially unveiled Net neutrality rules, the Arizona Republican introduced a bill that would prohibit the Commission from enacting them. 
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski this morning proposed broad new rules prohibiting Internet providers–both wireless and wireline–from selectively blocking or slowing Internet traffic. “It is vital that we safeguard the free and open Internet,” Genachowski said during at event at the Brookings Institute. After the jump, Genachowski’s speech in full.
The econalypse and the job losses and lower housing starts it’s brought with it are having a nasty effect on Comcast’s bottom line. And according to CEO Brian Roberts, that’s not going to change any time soon. “It’s still a scary time,” he said in remarks at Sanford Bernstein’s 25th annual Strategic Decisions Conference in New York. 
Took ’em long enough. After weeks of rumor and speculation, Walt Disney Co. has finally taken a stake in Hulu, the video-streaming site operated by NBC Universal, News Corporation and Providence Equity Partners. Financial terms and the structure of the deal weren’t disclosed, but sources say Disney’s stake in the venture will be 27 percent.
This weekend, AllThingsD.com is distributing awards for Best Performance in a ToS Slapdown, Fastest Disappearing Subscriber Base, and Best Conference to Attend in February If It’s Cold Where You Live. If all involved keep their remarks on topic, things should move along quickly.
The typical real-time Internet connection speed in the United States is a mortifying 2.35 megabits per second, so it’s particularly galling to hear that Korea, which already offers its citizens broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps, is planning to introduce 1Gbps service by 2012. 
Ironic, isn’t it, that the nationwide WiMAX network created by the $14.5 billion merger of Clearwire and Sprint Nextel is to be rebranded as “Clear,” since the joint-venture transaction that spawned it as about as muddy as they come.
With U.S. broadband speeds lagging far behind European and Asian countries, Comcast is finally doing its part to bring the country’s lousy broadband Internet services into parity with those of other industrialized nations. You know, like Iceland. Or South Korea.
As predictable as day following night, litigation has followed the Federal Communications Commission’s sanctions against Comcast. In a long-expected action, Comcast sued the commission today claiming the FCC had no legal grounds on which to punish it for throttling file-sharing traffic on its network. 
