Andre Yoskowitz
19 Sep 2009 14:44
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has announced the group will be proposing new rules over net neutrality that will block ISPs from "throttling" any data across their networks.
Last year, the ISP Comcast came under fire after it was found to be intentionally throttling data from torrent downloaders and uploaders, sometimes slowing their speeds down to nothing.
Advocacy groups went on the offensive claiming that if net neutrality laws were not updated, ISPs such as Comcast could eventually throttle legitimate streaming of TV shows and movies, simply because it would compete with Comcast's cable TV services.
The new rules will ban all "throttling" and would apply to wireless service providers through 3G and eventually 4G, as well.
The ISPs say that throttling is a necessary evil as BitTorrent use eats up massive bandwidth thus leaving other users with slower Internet. It is unclear whether this has ever been proved.
President Barack Obama is in full support of net neutrality.