Cox Communications Inc. is taking heat for its newly announced Internet management practices, which it soon will trial in parts of Kansas and Arkansas.
The nation’s third-largest cable operator late Tuesday released a disclosure statement that outlined “a new method of managing traffic on our high-speed Internet network” as of Feb. 9.
Consumer advocacy group Free Press took immediate umbrage to the news.
"The information provided by Cox gives little indication about how its new practices will impact Internet users, or if they comply with the FCC's Internet Policy Statement,” said Ben Scott, policy director. "As a general rule, we're concerned about any cable or phone company picking winners and losers online.”
About three hours before Free Press released its statement, a Cox executive told xchange that the company does not block Internet traffic. However, he admitted the cableco is “testing a couple different technologies that will help us manage abuse on the network, that will keep the service vibrant and robust to our customers.”
“We’ve always been very open with our customers through our disclosure statement, and we’ve never done anything other than what we’ve said in our disclosure statement,” said Claus Kroeger, head of Cox’s west operations.
And here’s the rub – an ISP can change its disclosures and clauses whenever it darn well pleases. To wit, now, instead of focusing on “traffic prioritization and protocol filtering,” Cox says it will automatically ensure “that all time-sensitive Internet traffic – such as Web pages, voice calls, streaming videos and gaming – moves without delay. Less time-sensitive traffic, such as file uploads, peer-to-peer and Usenet newsgroups, may be delayed momentarily – but only when the local network is congested.”
That’s a pretty bold move to make under the hawkish eye of a Democratic administration that’s already expressed its support for net neutrality oversight. Plus, the FCC last year ordered Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) to forgo P2P traffic throttling and devise new management practices, or face the consequences. Comcast now is more open about how and why it manages its ‘Net load, but Cox has yet to be as transparent. Indeed, Comcast, too, relied on protocol filtering – Cox has yet to get busted for it.
