WASHINGTON D.C. – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau has opened a public comment period as part of its investigation into whether Comcast discriminates against some kinds of Web traffic.Promised by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin during a public appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, the investigation is the result of consumer, competitor and watchdog complaints that the nation’s No. 2 internet service provider uses stealthy means to “throttle” the internet connections of subscribers it suspects are sharing files online. Although it initially denied the practice, Comcast has admitted it “delays” some traffic by limiting the bandwidth available to subscribers who employ BitTorrent, a popular file-sharing protocol. The company has said it is allowed to engage in “reasonable network management” under the FCC’s 2005 Internet Policy Statement, but it has yet to inform its subscribers about how much bandwidth they may consume before their connections are limited or terminated.

The Comcast issue is one of two ISP-related petitions the FCC took up on Monday. The second, submitted by online video provider Vuze Inc., seeks an FCC ruling that broadband service providers may not block, degrade, or “unreasonably” discriminate against “lawful internet applications, content or technologies.” In addition, Vuze wants the FCC to declare for the record that consumers may access legal content via any application or service of their choice and connect any legal devices to the network.

In Vuze’s opinion, ISPs should not be allowed to target classes of applications (BitTorrent, for example) in their quests to ensure the integrity of their networks, and their traffic-management policies should be clearly spelled out for consumers.

“Comcast blocking BitTorrent is the canary in the coal mine for corporations that seek to take over the internet,” Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott posted at the non-partisan media-reform organization’s website. “The FCC should immediately stop Comcast from blocking internet traffic and then proceed with this important investigation and public comment process. It’s high time to involve the American public in this matter.”

Members of the American public who would like to become involved may weigh in using the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (reference WC Docket No. 07-52). The comment-submission deadline is February 13th.