May 2008

Cox Communications appears to be impeding peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic in the same way Comcast has, according to a study released Thursday by a German research group. Germany’s Max Planck Institute, a science and technology research organization, analyzed a test of 8,175 Internet volunteers around the world and found that both Comcast and Cox are blocking peer-to-peer traffic over their networks during all hours of the day. In a statement sent to the Associated Press, Cox said: "To ensure the best possible online experience for our customers, Cox actively manages network traffic through a variety of methods including traffic prioritization and protocol filtering." Cox also noted that its subscriber agreement has indicated since at least 2006 that it uses protocol filtering to manage network resources, and denied that the techniques it uses to manage bandwidth amounts to “blocking” any Internet service. The Max Planck study found that 82 of the 151 Cox broadband subscribers (54%) that voluntarily tested their connections through the research group’s site had their P2P connections blocked. Of the 788 Comcast subscribers participating, 491 (62%) were blocked. Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge said, "These results lead us to three conclusions. First, the largest cable companies were doing more blocking than they have admitted to Congress or to the FCC. Second, other cable companies, and all telephone companies, can manage their networks without the need for blocking the traffic of customers. Finally, the fact that the blocking goes on all the time should tell the Commission that it needs to act soon to prevent the practice."
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6561294.html?nid=4262

The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission, Canada's broadcast watchdog, will hold public hearings next year into the thorny question of extending its purview to the Internet, a medium that it deemed a regulatory-free zone nearly a decade ago. The CRTC released a final, 75-page report that summarizes research and stakeholder opinion on a wide range of issues, including Canadian content that's broadcast online or mobile devices, and the recent debate over Internet Service Providers who deliberately slow certain types of Internet traffic. The report, a draft version of which was first revealed in March, was created amid pressure from some Canadian content creators who are concerned their work is increasingly being broadcast on the Internet, where it is free from regulatory oversight. Among the more controversial proposals are raising a levy on Internet Service Providers to pay for the creation of new media content. The public is also invited to comment on the issues at http://crtc.newmedia.econsultation.ca until June 15. Also, a group of Internet service providers that resell bandwidth on Bell Canada's network has lost a temporary bid to shelter their subscribers from the phone company's practice of slowing down certain types of Internet traffic. The CRTC turned down the Canadian Association of Internet Providers' request for an injunction, saying the group failed to demonstrate its members are being harmed by Bell's efforts to "shape" the Internet traffic of its wholesale clients. CRTC mailed out a set of questions to Bell Canada asking the company to explain exactly how and why it decided to slow down certain file-sharing traffic on wholesale networks it leases to smaller independent Internet service providers. Traffic shaping generally refers to the use of special software to sniff out and slow down data packets associated with bandwidth-intensive services such as file sharing.

A new SNL Kagan survey predicts annual multichannel-subscription growth of 2.1%, or 108.5 million by 2012, with the total multichannel market accounting for about 89% of TV households. Kagan did not predict that the digital-TV switch will drive very many over-the-air viewers to multichannel providers, saying that about 10% of over-the-air households will opt to move to multichannel, with most of those going to cable. Even so, Kagan’s study predicted that cable's market share will drop from 64% to 59% by 2012, with telcos' market share jumping to 9%. It sees satellite's share dropping due to the lack of a bundled video/voice/data option. The study said migrating customers to digital will be key to stemming that cable-market-share erosion.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6561349.html?rssid=193

Public interest groups Public Knowledge and Media Access Project want to make sure the FCC understands their position on the Sirius-XM merger in light of a recent letter from Chester Davenport the Managing Director of Georgetown Partners. While they confirmed that they did indeed meet with Georgetown Partners, the groups reiterated that they "take no position with respect to [Georgetown Partners'] specific proposal that 20% of the merged XM/Sirius company's spectrum capacity be leased on an arms-length basis to an independent entity." "This approach could be a useful supplement to, but not a substitute for, the 5% non-commercial, educational set aside," they state in their letter to the FCC. Should the Federal Communications Commission determine that Georgetown's proposal is in the public interest, both Public Knowledge and Media Access Project support the minority-owned group's proposal to assist non-commercial, educational programmers.
http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/public-knowledge-media-access-project-...
* See filing
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_doc...