Broadband Policy: Comcast Throttles, BBC Calls For More

On Tuesday, the FCC Chair told Congress that Comcast was blocking peer-to-peer traffic even when there was no network congestion, contrary to what Comcast had told the FCC.

Then there's the Dave Winer Comcast story from last week. With no warning, Comcast cut off his service, not once, but twice. The company threatened to send workers to his house to put a regulator on his router.

Winer pays $180/mo for his combined Comcast offerings, which includes its "power boost" internet service. He's an edge case, but his usage is legal (no copyright infringement).

To be expected, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), of "the Internet as a series of tubes" fame, opposes any network neutrality bill. Regulation, of course is "unwarranted." Media companies, telecoms and television services are three of the top 20 industries helping Stevens buy his seat each term.

Across the pond the BBC is calling for government "intervention in the market in order to ensure everyone has access to broadband internet."

[We] would like to emphasise the importance of considering the case for a new definition of universal service aims in a higher-speed future. There is a need to scope the case for public intervention to ensure all parts of the UK have access to modern broadband networks, even in areas where it may be commercially unattractive. For if broadband delivers social value that goes beyond private value, then it will be essential to ensure that no-one is left out.

US broadband customers do not have market power -- that trump card is held by the handful of firms providing broadband. Unfortunately, there is little geographic overlap, meaning most people are lucky to have one possible provider. Thus, there is little competition where it matters. Evidence: the US pays more for less (in mobile internet, too).

But we have the same problem faced in Britain -- the need to provide a minimum level of service. The need to think of internet access as an infrastructure good.

Instead, we get situations like this, where pricing is dramatically out of whack because, in part, the firms (one telec, one cable) are regulated differently.

We need a network neutrality bill to ensure that the centuries long "common carrier" practice is, in fact, the law of the land. We can't afford to have bullies like Comcast shutting off service -- or throttling service -- simply because a customer triggered an unknown warning flag.

We need the equivalent of a rural electrification bill, one that ensures everyone in society can access the internet. Not for commerce. For governance.