Comcast to cooperate with FCC to settle internet traffic concerns

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will investigate claims by consumer groups that Comcast blocked some file-sharing services like BitTorrent.

"The agency plans to investigate complaints that Comcast restricted some kinds of traffic," said Kevin Martin, Federal Communications Commission Chairman, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

It is alleged that two consumer groups, Free Press and Public Knowledge, filed a complaint with the FCC saying that Comcast was hindering subscribers from exchanging large files like TV shows and movies making it harder for customers to use peer to peer file sharing websites.

However, in response to the complaint, Comcast said it used bandwidth management technology on its network that may have resulted into slow delivery of files but not blocking them.

Different companies such as Google Inc. called on the Congress to put in place laws that allow network-neutrality such that internet service providers may not charge Web sites priority access fees or block certain Web content.