a bit more -- Is Comcast Discriminating Against VoIP Providers?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kurt Albershardt <kurt () nv net>
Date: January 20, 2009 2:16:09 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Is Comcast Discriminating Against VoIP Providers?

<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2339204,00.asp>
Is Comcast Discriminating Against VoIP Providers?
ARTICLE DATE:  01.19.09
By  Chloe Albanesius

After a year of back and forth over Comcast's network management  
practices, the cable provider is now under fire for allegedly giving  
priority to its own IP-based digital phone service over that of  
competing VoIP providers.

The Federal Communications Commission on Sunday penned a letter to  
Comcast asking why its updated network management policy says that  
heavy bandwidth users might experience "choppy" VoIP communications on  
competitors like Vonage or Skype, but not necessarily on Comcast's own  
IP-based Digital Voice offering.

"We seek clarification with respect to an apparent discrepancy between  
Comcast's [September 19] filing and its actual or advertised  
practices," Dana Shaffer, chief of the FCC's wireline competition  
bureau, and Matthew Berry, FCC general counsel, wrote in a letter to  
Comcast. "Comcast states that [a bandwidth hog] may find that his  
'VoIP call sounds choppy' [but] draws no distinction between Comcast's  
VoIP offering and those offered by its competitors."

The Comcast Web site says that Comcast Digital Voice is a separate,  
facilities-based IP phone service that is not affected by Comcast's  
new network management techniques. It would appear, then, that Comcast  
considers its Digital Voice offering a telephone service, not an  
Internet service, according to the FCC. If so, Comcast should be  
paying the same fees incurred by traditional phone providers.

The FCC requests that "Comcast explain any reason the commission  
should not treat Comcast's VoIP offering as a telecommunications  
service – a service subject, among other things, to the same  
intercarrier compensation obligations applicable to other facilities- 
based telecommunications carriers," Shaffer and Berry wrote. "We  
understand that Comcast is not yet complying with such intercarrier  
compensation obligations."

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