Comcast and Free Press continue feuding at the FCC (CD July 21 p1...

network management. In a Monday letter to the FCC Comcast said it meant its communique to “re-emphasize the fundamental legal flaw in Free Press’ demand” that the FCC act: “There is simply no law, and no lawful basis to promulgate any new legal standard to be enforced.” Section 230(b) of the Communications Act and 706(a) of the Telecom Act, both of which Free Press “now focuses” on, “confer no rights or enforceable duties on subscribers or broadband providers, and do not expand the agency’s statutory authority in any way,” said Comcast. “The absence of any potentially applicable law prevents the Commission from taking any action on the Complaint.” If it did act, the FCC could violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the due process clause of the Constitution, Comcast suggested. Friday, officials from Free Press and other network neutrality proponents met with Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein to discuss “the strongest jurisdictional bases for the Commission to issue a show-cause Order,” said an ex parte. “We also discussed several of the meritless arguments that Comcast and its allies have raised in its attempt to delay the Commission’s action.” Another letter from Comcast to the FCC said the cable operator’s network management, similar to that of other ISPs in the U.S. and other countries, isn’t discriminatory. Comcast broadband customers “can and do access any content, run any application, and use any service that they wish,” said the cable company.