Patrick Leahy wants net neutrality and he's pushing Comcast to make a pledge that it has already broken

Oct 21, 2014 07:21 GMT  ·  By

The battle for net neutrality is nowhere near over and US Senator Patrick Leahy, one of the biggest supporters of the principle of the Open Internet, is making sure that everyone knows where Comcast sits on the issue.

In an open letter, Leahy urged Comcast to publicly swear it will not create fast lanes for the websites with deep enough pockets to pay for this. Of course, Comcast has already pushed Netflix to sign up for a peering deal by throttling with its speeds.

“As the antitrust regulators continue to evaluate Comcast’s proposed transaction with Time Warner Cable, and regardless of whether it is approved, I ask Comcast to pledge that it will not engage in paid prioritization,” Leahy wrote. “I also ask that Comcast pledge not to engage in any activity that prioritizes affiliated content or services over unaffiliated content or services, helping to ensure that vertical integration does not threaten competition online.”

Leahy points out that this is the only thing that makes sense, for Comcast to swear against creating fast lanes given the overwhelming support for this from people who sent the FCC comments over the past few months.

The downside of fast lanes

Many have argued that creating fast lanes is, on one hand, impossible. That’s because this would not involve any type of technical upgrade to the networks. It would basically be the unthrottled speeds the network supports and the throttled speeds available for those who won’t pay for access.

On the other hand, there’s been quite a few arguments that allowing ISPs to create fast lanes would prevent startups and smaller businesses from properly competing on the market. This matters even more for companies that stream music and movies.

It should also be pointed out that Netflix, whom Comcast throttled with earlier this year until it agreed to pay for a peering deal, is a direct competitor of Hulu, a company that is a joint venture of NBCUniversal Television Group (Comcast), Fox Broadcasting Company (21st Century Fox) and ABC Television Group (The Walt Disney Company).

The FCC to decide on net neutrality and Comcast's merger with TWC

The FCC is still deliberating on the net neutrality issue and will hopefully hand out a decision soon. The FCC was told earlier this year that it has no legal power whatsoever to command ISPs to respect net neutrality rules. The Commission’s Tom Wheeler proposed to allow companies to create fast lanes, but to impose some rules for them.

That was, of course, rejected immediately by the public who doesn’t want to see ISPs with so much power in their hands.

The FCC is also looking into Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable, who most people believe will just lead to even less competition on the American Internet market.