WASHINGTON, DC — The Federal Communications Commission on August 20th formally ordered Comcast Corp. to stop blocking transmission of some file types in an attempt to control traffic on its network. The order came amidst Comcast’s tests of new technologies that would slow by as much as 20 minutes file transmissions initiated by users of the nation’s largest cable company’s broadband internet access services.The company was not fined.

Part of the FCC’s concern about Comcast’s previous traffic-management tactics sprang from a growing concern about the use of so-called “deep-packet inspection,” a process that allows service providers to snoop into personal details of a user’s online behavior. The FCC’s order called Comcast’s behavior “inconsistent with the concept of an open and accessible Internet” and determined the company had an “anticompetitive motive” that may have derived from concern users were obtaining files they otherwise might have been required to pay to see on Comcast’s websites or cable television channels. FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin compared Comcast’s practice of examining the content of user’s packets to the post office opening mail before allowing it to be delivered.

Comcast has promised it no longer will target specific file types — primarily peer-to-peer protocols — as part of its network-management policy. The current tests, which limit transmission speeds for all file types, began in March and recently were expanded from the original two markets to include Warrenton and Chambersburg, PA; Colorado Springs, CO, and Lakeview and East Orange, FL. A company spokesperson said the new technology is due for rollout nationally by the end of the year.

Comcast has 30 days to explain to the FCC how it will manage the traffic created by its 14.4 million subscribers in the future.

Heavy internet users already are worrying the quality of their service will decline, especially if Comcast adopts a tiered pricing structure similar to ones recently introduced by other broadband providers like Time Warner Cable. TWC began a tiered-pricing test in Beaumont, TX, this summer, and the company has said it eventually plans to roll out the pricing structure nationwide. Under the tiered plan, customers are allotted five gigabytes of transfer on a basic plan; each additional gigabyte of usage costs $1. Users who require more bandwidth can purchase more expensive packages, beginning at $54.90 per month for 40 gigabytes.

Although phone companies have been slow to investigate similar traffic-management practices for their DSL services (which typically run slower than cable-broadband to begin with), Frontier Communications Corp. recently announced it plans next year to cap “basic” service packages at 5 gigabytes per month — the equivalent of about three full-length, DVD-quality movies. Customers who require more transfer allocation must pay more per month or pay by the gigabyte of overage.

Comcast has floated the idea of a 250-gigabyte monthly bandwidth cap.

One of the problems consumers see with a bandwidth-cap system is that few know how much bandwidth they use at any given time or how to determine their usual usage. Others complain that while providers’ costs for network hardware and maintenance are dropping, it seems unfair for broadband ISPs to be upping fees on end-users. Still others mention that as the internet and users’ habits evolve, more users will be using larger chunks of bandwidth, so capping everyone at current levels will become more and more expensive over the long haul unless providers build in plans to increase basic bandwidth allotments over time.

For its part, Frontier said its statistics indicate most of its subscribers consume less than 1.5 gigabytes monthly. In two years, though, the company admits average users very well could be consuming six gigabytes per month if current trends and usage patterns continue.