Comcast Subpoenaed for P2P Traffic Throttling

NEW YORK - According to published reports, the New York attorney general's office has subpoenaed broadband provider Comcast for information about its interference with subscribers' file-sharing traffic.

 

Comcast, which said interfering with file-sharing traffic is necessary to keep all Internet traffic flowing efficiently, told the Associated Press it is cooperating with the office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

The subpoena came as the Federal Communications Commission held a public hearing in Massachusetts on Monday to discuss peer-to-peer traffic throttling done by Comcast and other Internet service providers. The FCC announced no actions as a result of the hearing.

 

Several consumer advocacy groups criticized Comcast for paying people to fill seats in the room at Harvard Law School, where the hearing was held.

"The sad thing about this is that literally hundreds of people who were not paid to stand in line, or paid by their employer to attend, were prevented from even entering the building," Craig Aaron of Free Press told Portfolio.com.

Comcast told Portfolio.com that its actions to fill seats at the hearing were prompted by the actions of groups like Free Press, which encouraged the public to attend.