FCC Chairman Promises Comcast Investigation

Posted by Eriq Gardner

The FCC's embrace of "Net Neutrality," the notion that ISPs should treat all traffic equally, is about to get its first test. A coalition of consumer groups and legal scholars is pushing the FCC to investigate complaints that Comcast Corp. actively interferes with Internet traffic as its subscribers try to share files online via BitTorrent.

At the Consumer Electronics Show yesterday in Las Vegas, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin responded with a somewhat unenthusiastic affirmative to a question posed by an audience member wondering if the agency will indeed investigate Comcast.

Those complaining about Comcast's actions want the company fined $195,000 for every affected subscriber.

Martin had much more to say yesterday on other topics, including approval of the proposed XM-Sirius merger, consumers’ fair use rights, and the digital TV transformation. Here's coverage of his speech.