Washington - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to punish Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), the nation's second-largest broadband provider, for actively interfering with the file-sharing traffic of its customers, the Associated Press reported. "The commission has adopted a set of principles that protects consumers' access to the Internet. We found that Comcast's actions in this instance violated our principles," FCC chairman Kevin Martin told AP.

Martin added that the FCC found that Comcast had "arbitrarily" blocked Internet access, instead of just at peak hours as the company claimed.

Comcast also failed to inform its customers of the practice, which came to light after a number of early reports were confirmed by the Associated Press.

An enforcement action set to be voted on during an Aug. 1 meeting would compel Comcast to cease its blocking practice, as well as turn over details on how it was performing its bandwidth management to the FCC.

Comcast will also have to provide consumers with details on its future plans to manage its bandwidth.

For its part, Comcast maintained that its "carefully limited measures" were "reasonable," spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice told AP.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/2wwwv (AP)

http://snipurl.com/2wx2c (DMW previous coverage)