PHILADELPHIA - Comcast told the Federal Communications Commission this week that it has no authority to enforce network neutrality principles.
The FCC now is considering a petition filed against Comcast by a coalition of network neutrality advocates seeking an injunction that would ban the company from interfering with traffic to peer-to-peer sites.
Comcast made the argument after months of FCC accusations that the company wrongly impeded traffic to peer-to-peer sites by saying it was done only for network management and didn't discriminate against particular types of content or users.
In its written comments, Comcast said the FCC's Internet policy statement, which endorses network neutrality in general, "was not published in the Federal Register and is not contained in the Code of Federal Regulations," and therefore does not have "binding legal effect."
A former FCC Commissioner said that if the FCC accepts this contention, it might not be able to take action against Comcast, regardless of whether the company degraded service to peer-to-peer sites in order to discriminate against potential competitors.
But even if the FCC doesn't have the authority to act against Comcast, the agency could change that by publishing the rules and turning them into regulations.
Network neutrality advocate Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, said she was unimpressed by Comcast's argument. She said the argument appears to be at odds with prior comments by critics of network neutrality laws.
"In the many times I have debated the carriers, they have said that the FCC has the power," she said.
