CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said today that broadband providers need to “provide transparency” about the speeds, service and prices that they are offering to consumers.
Martin, speaking after Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., headlined the FCC’s monthly meeting here today at Harvard Law School, said the FCC’s four principles on Net Neutrality — promulgated in 2005 — will not permit broadband providers to block applications from lawful Internet services.
Speaking at a hearing on the “network management” practices of broadband carriers, Martin said the agency’s neutrality principles were all subject to “reasonable network management.”
“That is the reason we are here today,” said Martin. “The intent is to protect consumers’ access to the lawful content of [their] choice.”
Broadband providers “obviously cannot be prohibited from taking any action, but that does not mean that they can block applications [or access to] reasonable services,” Martin said.
But for any such network management “practices to be reasonable, they must be conducted in a transparent way. Consumers need to know” what aspects of their Internet connections will or won’t be affected by such practices. They also need to know about the speeds, services and prices offered by the carriers, he said.
Referring to the fact that non-profit groups, including Free Press and Public Knowledge, have criticized Comcast’s alleged blocking of traffic from the application BitTorrent, Martin said. “We don’t take those allegations lightly.”
“The commission is ready, willing and able to step in and address” such allegations, Martin said.
Note: I’ll be live-blogging today from the Federal Communications Commission hearing — on “network management” of the Internet — here in Cambridge, Mass. Check back frequently for updates!
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.