N.Y. Attorney General Subpoenas Comcast on P2P Throttling

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 27, 2008 - 11:49am.

New York - The New York attorney general's office has subpoenaed broadband provider Comcast (NASD: CMCSA) for information on its practice of interfering with the file-sharing traffic of some subscribers, according to published reports. Comcast, which has admitted to the practice but says it is necessary to ensure all Internet traffic flows smoothly, told the Associated Press that it is cooperating with the office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

The subpoena came as the FCC held a public hearing in Massachusetts on Monday to discuss the throttling of peer-to-peer traffic by Comcast and other ISPs.

While the FCC announced no actions as a result of the hearing, Comcast was criticized by several consumer advocacy groups for paying people to fill seats in the room at Harvard Law School where the hearing took place.

"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.

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