Net Neutrality

FCC chmn Kevin Martin said Fri he hopes to resolve the network management complaints filed against Comcast and others by the end of 2Q. Speaking at a Stanford Law School conference, Martin expounded on why last month’s FCC hearing in Boston focused more on Comcast than Verizon, which also had a blocking complaint lobbed against it. “There wasn’t much focus on them because they came forward and said they shouldn’t have done it,” Martin said of the telco. The debate centered on Comcast because it continues to maintain that it was conducting reasonable network management of peer-to-peer traffic, whereas Verizon said it had made a mistake, he said. Martin said the Comcast complaint would set an “important precedent.” In ’05, the FCC established some net neutrality policies, but Martin said at the time that “policy statements do not establish rules nor are they enforceable documents.” Stay tuned.