FCC is targeting Comcast

Comcast Corp., the nation’s biggest cable-TV operator, is being investigated by the Federal Communications Commission over concerns that it is giving preferential treatment to its phone service at the expense of similar services from competitors.

In a letter to Comcast on Sunday, the FCC asked Comcast to justify this “disparate treatment.”

Philadelphia-based Comcast said it was reviewing the FCC’s letter.

It has until Jan. 30 to respond.

Comcast last year changed the way it handles Internet traffic after the FCC cracked down on its practice of delaying peer-to-peer file sharing.

That is an issue that has outraged supporters of “network neutrality,” which is the idea that Internet service providers should not give certain types of online data better treatment than others.

Now, Comcast is slowing down traffic for heavy users if there is Internet congestion in their area, regardless of what type of data they are consuming.

Comcast indicated in a regulatory filing that an Internet phone call placed when the network is congested could sound “choppy.”

But the FCC noted that Comcast’s website says that its own phone service is routed over a separate network instead of the public Internet and won’t be affected by its new network management practices.

The FCC said that if Comcast isn’t routing calls over its broadband network, the phone service could be classified as a telecommunications service subject to regulation and intercarrier fees that phone companies currently pay.

In related news, the FCC is fining nine cable-TV operators a total of about $500,000 for trying to thwart its investigation into a practice in which analog channels were transferred to a more expensive digital tier, leaving some customers without access.

In a letter to congressional leaders Monday, on his last full day in office, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said cable operators had exhibited “contempt” for the commission by not providing full information about their practices, as ordered.