What ISP Transparency? – All Comcast debate seemed to do is deliver new caps…

2 Nov 2008

While a lot was made in the mainstream technology press about how Comcast’s ongoing scuffle with the FCC over throttling BitTorrent resulted in a “new age of ISP transparency,” things haven’t really changed all that much. ISPs like Cox are still doing the exact same P2P choking Comcast got in trouble for with nobody really noticing. Other ISPs like T-Mobile and Sprint continue to simply bury vague legalese in their acceptable use policies that give them the right to restrict your service however and whenever they see fit. Consumer advocacy group Free Press last week apparently noticed things really haven’t changed:

“The reality is that consumers have no way of knowing how their Internet usage is being altered, tracked or redirected by their ISPs. Terms of service agreements contain the vaguest language that corporate lawyers can devise — further stacking the deck against the consumer. It took years to uncover Comcast’s illegal behavior and NebuAd’s intrusive technology. And it could take years more to uncover the next hidden harm.”

The group is calling upon the FCC, which may be under new leadership shortly, to require that ISPs be completely transparent about exactly how they’re throttling, blocking, selling or otherwise tinkering with subscriber traffic. So far, the FCC’s refusal to set solid rules on this front has only really helped carriers. While Comcast may have gotten some bad press from their run in with the FCC, they saw no fine, no new rules were constructed, and the door was simply opened for carriers to implement very transparent, but often unreasonable, caps.
read comment(s)

Link to the original article…