Comcast appeals FCC traffic management order

Comcast has decided to appeal the FCC’s order for the cable giant to stop metering P2P traffic, even though Comcast ceased that practice even before the FCC order was issued. The goal of the company is to test the FCC’s net neutrality principles, which since they were not contained in an FCC rulemaking/order, are likely not to have force of law.

The move, which is supported by some other ISPs, may well backfire on the industry because an FCC decision that did not, in fact, have enforceable net neutrality principles (which the agency has long said it did) would certainly result in the introduction of legislation. That might be far more restricting, and it might open other issues as well.

We said when this order was issued that Comcast would be foolish to appeal it, and Comcast appears to have been just that.