FCC votes to punish Comcast

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted on the issue of Comcast's throttling of customer network connections, and a majority of FCC board members have come out against the ISP.

Three of the five-member board voted against Comcast's stance, but the decision is not final because all the members have not yet cast their votes.

Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, and Republican chairman Kevin Martin, all voted against Comcast.

"I continue to believe that it is imperative that all consumers have unfettered access to the internet," Martin said in a statement released on 26 July.

"I am pleased that a majority has agreed that the FCC has the authority to, and will, stop broadband service providers when they block or interfere with subscribers' access."

Full details of the FCC ruling have not yet been released, but Martin said that he is not looking for a fine. However, Comcast will have to stop the practice of throttling BitTorrent and peer to peer traffic.

Comcast said in a statement to Associated Press that its actions were " reasonable and wholly consistent with industry practices" and that the company "did not block access to websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services".

The case could prove very important for the future of net neutrality, one of the founding principles of the internet that ensures a level playing field for all companies online.