The Comcast Mystery Deepens

The organizer of a public hearing on net neutrality said she's skeptical of Comcast's argument that it paid people merely to hold places for Comcast employees who would arrive later.

Catherine Bracy of Harvard said about three-dozen placeholders entered the hearing, a public forum at which the Federal Communications Commission sought public comment on Comcast's policy of slowing or blocking some internet traffic on its network. Most left after the first panel. Some slept through the proceedings.

Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas told the blog Ars Technica that the company "did pay some individuals to stand in line and hold seats for Comcast employees." He said it was a "common practice" in Washington.

Bracy, however, said that doesn't jibe with what she saw at the hearing. "They didn't get up to leave in order to let Comcast employees sit there," said Bracy, administrative manager at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. "There were no Comcast employees waiting to get in. The people who were waiting to get into the room were regular citizens waiting to get into a public hearing."

With the room packed, Bracy said that she and other Harvard staffers had no choice but to turn other members of the public away.

"We were really disapointed that we couldn't let more people into the room," Bracy added. "Then we learned that Comcast was paying people to fill up seats."

The F.C.C. is reviewing Comcast's practice of slowing down or blocking the delivery of some internet content over its cable network. The company says it is engaging only in prudent network management, but critics have accused it of trying to hobble rivals in the video-on-demand business.

The practice has already attracted the attention of Congress and the New York attorney general's office as well as the F.C.C. All have opened separate investigations of the practice.

It has also prompted some customers to sue, and led to the creation of an ad hoc coalition of academics and other free-speech advocates to push regulators to prevent cable operators and phone companies from slowing or blocking the delivery of targeted internet content over their systems.

by Sam Gustin

Photograph: A Harvard University police officer prevents people from entering an overcrowded meeting room where the Federal Communication Commission was holding a public hearing on Monday. Comcast, the cable company that was the subject of the hearing, said it hired some people to fill seats at the event; event organizers said that prevented some company critics from attending. Photograph by Stephan Savoia/Associated Press