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FCC Net Neutrality Meeting at Stanford Today
Comcast denies invitation to attend

The FCC is holding a public meeting at Stanford University today to discuss the issues of net neutrality and traffic shaping. Seventeen different witnesses will be testifying today, one of which is Broadband Reports user Robb Topolski who was the first to identify Comcast’s practice of packet forgery last year. He says that this hearing should be very different from the first FCC hearing that was held back in February.

quote:
"In addition to the invited panelists, the most important part of this meeting will be the two hours for public comment. With freedom and innovation on the net at stake, I sure hope everyone with opinions on either side of this topic takes the time to show up."
Topolski himself will be speaking about how the issue affects him as both a consumer and a software developer.

One party who won’t be speaking is Comcast. After the recent announcement that Comcast and Pando Networks seek to collaborate on a “bill of rights and responsibilities” for P2P sharing, Comcast Chief Technical Officer Tony Werner was invited to testify at this hearing. He denied, citing a lack of preparation and family issues as the reason. Comcast also says that the issue isn’t just about them so they don’t need to be there. They assure people that they won’t be filling the room with seat-warmers this time around.

The meeting is scheduled to start at noon Pacific Time and is expected to last all day.

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DJ MASACRE

Anon

GOOD !

Good, the more this gets nailed in the ground in the states, the better for Canada to do the same.. if we don't then we will look pretty stupid ... and Bell will be the enemy..

Oh wait, they already are...

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

1 recommendation

ptrowski

Premium Member

Go Robb!

I am very glad to see that Robb will be speaking at the meeting today. It just goes to show the power that BBR and it's members have.

PhoenixDown
FIOS is Awesome
Premium Member
join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY

1 recommendation

PhoenixDown

Premium Member

Re: Go Robb!

Good luck today Robb... you've done an outstanding job and we all owe you a round of beers. Hope you have a very high tolerance!

user850
@k12.il.us

user850

Anon

Re: Go Robb!

said by PhoenixDown:

Good luck today Robb... you've done an outstanding job and we all owe you a round of beers. Hope you have a very high tolerance!
Yeah, great guy. Hope it goes well for him and gives us a nice report of what went on later in the forums.

koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
Humax BGW320-500

1 recommendation

koitsu to ptrowski

MVM

to ptrowski
said by ptrowski:

I am very glad to see that Robb will be speaking at the meeting today. It just goes to show the power that BBR and it's members have.
Agreed. Go Robb!

Also, I hope someone puts up a video of the hearing after it's over. I'd be there myself, but I work graveyard shift...

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski

Premium Member

Re: Go Robb!

said by koitsu:

said by ptrowski:

I am very glad to see that Robb will be speaking at the meeting today. It just goes to show the power that BBR and it's members have.
Agreed. Go Robb!

Also, I hope someone puts up a video of the hearing after it's over. I'd be there myself, but I work graveyard shift...
Pansy! Suck it up and go.

JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium Member
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD

1 edit

JTRockville to koitsu

Premium Member

to koitsu
said by koitsu:

...Also, I hope someone puts up a video of the hearing after it's over. ...
The FCC will post the audio here, whenever they get around to it.
»www.fcc.gov/realaudio/ag ··· ngs.html

The video (in VHS format) will be made available for purchase. Too bad they don't distribute it via Vuze.

In the meantime, you can read about Robb's remarks at wired.com (who gave a hat-tip to BBR):
»blog.wired.com/27bstroke ··· ear.html

Way to go Robb!

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Ho Hum!! Just FCC's Martin beating a dead horse

This is a meeting that wasn't needed. It is just Martin continuing his anti-Comcast vendetta. Martin has already lost the backing of Congress and his ability to change anything based on the meeting is nil.
backness
join:2005-07-08
K2P OW2

backness

Member

Re: Ho Hum!! Just FCC's Martin beating a dead horse

only you would be against a public debate highlighting the issues on both sides.

Do you not admit that there are at least 2 sides to this debate?

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Ho Hum!! Just FCC's Martin beating a dead horse

said by backness:

only you would be against a public debate highlighting the issues on both sides.
And only you would think this meeting will result in both sides being HEARD. This hearing is just another of Martin's PR efforts against cable - nothing more.

TScheisskopf
World News Trust
join:2005-02-13
Belvidere, NJ

1 recommendation

TScheisskopf

Member

Re: Ho Hum!! Just FCC's Martin beating a dead horse

said by FFH5:

said by backness:

only you would be against a public debate highlighting the issues on both sides.
And only you would think this meeting will result in both sides being HEARD. This hearing is just another of Martin's PR efforts against cable - nothing more.
Surpringly, I agree with you that Martin is a tool. Hardly ergonomically-designed, to boot. That said, there are substantive issues here, some of them dragged into the light by one of our own. The motivations of Martin can be questioned. The data, not so much.

The data trumps even Martin and his motivations.

I certainly hope that the discussion today goes into the "whys" as much as the "hows and whats" of this traffic shaping. Perhaps a few moments on Comcast, its pile o' cash that it is sitting on and its reluctance to invest that pile o' cash in upgrades of its core infrastructure to meet the bandwidth needs of its traffic, instead relying on silly parlor-trick boxes that degrade services, while couching their arguments for these silly parlor tricks, and the arguments of their designated shills, in facile and high-flown rhetoric that is designed to avoid the meat of the issue:

They are running out of pipes and they need to do a lot of node-splitting.

SpaethCo
Digital Plumber
MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN

SpaethCo to backness

MVM

to backness
said by backness:

Do you not admit that there are at least 2 sides to this debate?
Do you really think both sides will be equally represented?

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Results of FCC mtg

»news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2008 ··· gulation

The 2 dems want more regulation.
The 2 republicans want things as is.
Martin vacillates between the 2 positions - as long as Comcast and cable are on the hot seat.

LegoPower77
Abecedarian
Premium Member
join:2002-08-03
Midlothian, VA

LegoPower77

Premium Member

Neutral about neutrality

This is one of those issues where can really see the other side's point. I really don't like Comcast's TCP RST deal.

That said, I don't think it's necessarily illicit for them to try to optimize their network. It's not as if they or we can wave a magic wand and have unlimited capacity and it can be argued that rabid P2Pers are free-riding.

It is extremely disconcerting to me to have to have a government solution because the more regulation, the less innovation. And all the so-called corruption of corporations just gets shifted to, or encouraged by, the corruption of the politicians and regulators.

There is no panacea.
ossito16
join:2004-07-31
Whiting, IN

ossito16

Member

Re: Neutral about neutrality

you might be correct if Comcast and others were being honest about why they are disrupting the services they advertise. Why don't they just admit that they do not want to spend anymore money to upgrade capacity and the only way that they can get more HD channels is to go after the Internet users who take full advantage of "unlimited" usage. It is so stupid to boost speed to 30mbps and higher if you are going to inhibit the people who will use every bit of that speed. If we could just get a straight up ISP that does not want to offer every service under the sun through the lines, give us an INTERNET only company, i.e. No phone or tv.

SpaethCo
Digital Plumber
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join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN

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SpaethCo

MVM

Re: Neutral about neutrality

said by ossito16:

Why don't they just admit that they do not want to spend anymore money to upgrade capacity and the only way that they can get more HD channels is to go after the Internet users who take full advantage of "unlimited" usage.
Because that's not the case? For congestion on the local segment it's not like they can go to the bandwidth store, toss them a few bucks, and just keep adding incremental bandwidth everywhere. Comcast has been waiting on CableLabs to certify the DOCSIS 3.0 standard and now they're waiting for their equipment vendors to start having DOCSIS 3.0 hardware available for purchase. It's tricky to spend money to upgrade capacity when the product you want to deploy doesn't exist yet.
said by ossito16:

If we could just get a straight up ISP that does not want to offer every service under the sun through the lines, give us an INTERNET only company, i.e. No phone or tv.
You can get that today -- the reason you don't buy that service is that without bundling of multiple products the line charge itself is too expensive. TV services bring in a lot of money from all sides, and the money they get from advertisers helps to offset some of the access fees. The whole reason Verizon is deploying FiOS is to get into the video entertainment game; Internet services by themselves do not generate enough revenue to support the FiOS rollout costs.

JoeSover
join:2008-02-08
Lompoc, CA

JoeSover

Member

Seatwarmer

I can't wait to see what was said at this meeting, should be very interesting. Thanks For going to speak Robb

HFB1217
The Wizard Premium ExMod 2000-01

join:2000-06-26
Camelot SwFL

HFB1217

No lack of an explanation for Comcast

It is the sheer arrogance of Comcast and the lack of respect for their customers shown by the non-attendance.
Corydon
Cultivant son jardin
Premium Member
join:2008-02-18
Denver, CO

Corydon

Premium Member

Re: No lack of an explanation for Comcast

Tell me about it. As others have pointed out, there are good reasons for Comcast to be doing what it's doing. What really bothers me about their behavior is how they've first of all lied, then evaded the question, got caught with their pants down, and now seem to think that by co-opting a few P2P players, they can get away with it.

They've been their own worst enemy through this entire process. If they'd been open and explained exactly what the problem was and exactly what they were doing to fix it, this would never have turned into such a fiasco.

It's probably too late for them now, even if they are trying to be open about their practices (that may be what this so-called "bill of rights and responsibilities" is). They've pretty much annihilated whatever trust they had.

Over and over again we see "it's not the crime, it's the cover-up" and no-one ever seems to learn that lesson.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Another nail in the coffin for the small ISP?

If the FCC outlaws traffic shaping of torrent traffic and others like it who will it really hurt? It's not going to hurt the mega huge billion dollar ISPs in the long run. It will hurt the remaining small ISPs and wISPs that can't afford to just throw more money at more bandwidth.

SpaethCo
Digital Plumber
MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN

1 edit

SpaethCo

MVM

Re: Another nail in the coffin for the small ISP?

said by battleop:

If the FCC outlaws traffic shaping of torrent traffic and others like it who will it really hurt?
Everybody who likes having SPAM filtered out of their email inbox and having Denial of Service mitigation.

There's been broad statements made that traffic should not be interfered with in any way. I just hope that in the process of trying to correct the perceived ethical overreaches of some offending companies that they don't screw everyone in the process. There's some traffic I want an ISP to interfere with.

wordwatcher
@pacbell.net

wordwatcher

Anon

I believe you meant to say

that he "declined" the invitation. The headline kind of threw me off at first. Comcast can't deny anyone's invitation to a public hearing, even the invitation it received.

RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY

RARPSL

Member

Re: I believe you meant to say

said by wordwatcher :

that he "declined" the invitation. The headline kind of threw me off at first. Comcast can't deny anyone's invitation to a public hearing, even the invitation it received.
In addition, this is not a meeting that was announced at the same time as the invitation was extended. The existence and scheduling of the meeting has been known for a few weeks. Thus as soon as it was announced Comcast had the ability to contact the FCC and ASK/DEMAND to participate (not just wait until the day before the meeting for the FCC to remind them of the meeting and extend an offer to participate and tell their side of the story). Since they did not do so, there is no validity to a claim that they are unable to participate at the last moment. This is an out-and-out attempt at spin control to cover up their unwillingness to participate.

funchords
Hello
MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA

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funchords

MVM

Thanks for the Kind Words

Hi fellow DSLReports-ers...

The experience was quite exciting. There was a back-story. My roommate came with me to Stanford, and hurt his leg. I took him to the hospital. My GPS had two different -- and wrong -- locations for the Stanford bookstore -- and although I hit the road more than 3 hours early, I arrived late to the hearing. (The parking was clear across the campus!) Thankfully, it started late. I was out of breath and probably more red-faced than normal for my pink complexion.

Video should be available here -- I haven't watched it, I probably broke the camera:

»www.vontv.net/events/080417/

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

Robert

Premium Member

Re: Thanks for the Kind Words

said by funchords:

Hi fellow DSLReports-ers...

The experience was quite exciting. There was a back-story. My roommate came with me to Stanford, and hurt his leg. I took him to the hospital. My GPS had two different -- and wrong -- locations for the Stanford bookstore -- and although I hit the road more than 3 hours early, I arrived late to the hearing. (The parking was clear across the campus!) Thankfully, it started late. I was out of breath and probably more red-faced than normal for my pink complexion.

Video should be available here -- I haven't watched it, I probably broke the camera:

»www.vontv.net/events/080417/
You did good! A little short of breath, but maybe you were nervous - I'd be!

catseyenu
Ack Pfft
Premium Member
join:2001-11-17
Fix East

1 edit

catseyenu to funchords

Premium Member

to funchords
Looks like at least 1 hour 45 minutes worth of comments..
I'm pulling from:
»mms://wm.tvworldwide.com/von/0 ··· arks.wmv