Comcast's "Racquet-eering" Shows Lessons For Internet's Future

Every once in a while, an obscure bureaucratic notice can crack open some wide vistas of unintended understanding. So it was on October 5, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a "hearing designation order" on a complaint filed by the Tennis Channel against Comcast.

In this case, we have a case of alleged discrimination against a growing and thriving cable channel that also provides a window into how the Internet would look if Comcast and the telephone companies had their way. As you might expect, the picture isn't pretty. Yet while the story on the surface is about cable programming, the story below the surface provides yet another cautionary tale about how the Internet could look if the big companies get their way.