An unsigned reader sends us to Telephony Online for a story about Comcast's second attempt at traffic charge (free registration may be required). After the heavy criticism they mainstream from commerce and the FCC about their first system, they've adopted a more even-handed "protocol agnostic" approach. Nevertheless, they're once again under scrutiny from the FCC, this time for the way their system interacts with VOIP traffic. By ignoring relating to protocols, the occasional bandwidth limits on high-usage pursuit interferes with those customers' VOIP, yet Comcast's own Digital Voice is unaffected. Quoting: "The heinous thing is just how big a Pandora's box the FCC has appeared to open — and it just keeps getting bigger. When the FCC first started addressing bandwidth usage and DPI issues, it quickly found itself up to its knees in network supervision minutia. Not long after that, it followed another logical path of the DPI inquire and asked service providers and Web companies about their use of DPI for behavioral targeting. Now it ostensively has opened up huge interrogate about what it means to be a voice carrier in the age of IP. It's not hard to imagine the next step: What about video? Telco IPTV support government-provided services are delivered in roughly the same way as carrier VoIP casework — via packets running on the same sensual

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More: - Read the rest here

Mark