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To the Commissioners:

I, Dave McClure, on behalf of myself and the more than 200 million Americans who subsribe to Internet services in the United States, request that the Commission issue a Declaratory Ruling that would require Internet Service Providers to adopt resonable and best practices for the management of their networks in a manner that does not permit discrimination by some Internet applications and users to reduce, block, degrade or otherwise lessen the integrity of my Internet and online experience.

Specifically, I submit the following:

• The principles adopted by the Commission do not pertain exclusively to network operators, but do state that I and other network subscribers have the right to access the content of my choice using the devices and applications of my choice.  It is therefore reasonable to assume that these rules must likewise pertain to individuals and applications that limit, reduce or block my ability to do so.
• As noted by Peter Svensson of the Associated Press, "In the basic configuration, each cable serves about 500 households, which share about 40 megabits per second of download capacity. If each household gets Internet service with a maximum download speed of 10 mbps, that means four of them downloading at full speed can saturate the connection."  DSL does not use a similar shared network, but suffers degradation when even a small minority of users elect downloads that saturate the capacity of the networks.  This degradation is even more significant on optical wireless and satellite Internet connections that are common in rural settings.  This means that a small number of users may therefore reduce my ability to download due to their excessive use of the Internet -- even though I am paying the same rate for my connection.  This is ipso facto discrimination against my ability to access and use the applications of my choice over the Internet, a violation of the principles adopted by the Commission by individual users who over-consume.
• These over-consuming users and applications likewise degrade my ability to use specific applications that include security systems, Voice-over-IP telephony and E-911 services, as well as the communications of Emergency First Response teams, law enforcement, fire and safety crews and others who utilize the public Internet.  They therefore represent a clear, present and quantified danger to the public safety and my personal well-being.
• The Internet was not ever and is not today designed to handle the demands of predatory applications, such as peer-to-peer networking applications, that use "supernode" configurations and other means to utilize a disproportionate amount of bandwidth.  Such applications are specifically designed to reduce and limit my ability to utilize the Internet as stated in the principles noted previously by intentionally permitting and encouraging other users of the Internet to discriminate against my use by taking a disproprtionate portion of our jointly allocated bandwidth.
• Merely adding capacity to the network is an unfair and discriminatory solution to this problem because the costs associated with the additional capacity are to be paid by me and by other subscribers with no guarantee that the additional capacity will not simply be consumed by rogue users and applications as it is today.  Additionally, the requirement to simply add capacity to lessen the demands of the over-users and rogue applications will reduce the investment dollars available for network build-out and enhancements, particularly in rural areas such as the one in which I reside.  This would therefore represent a secondary level of discrimination against my rightful use of the Internet.
• Adding capacity to satisfy the users and applications who are discriminating against me and other users today would unfairly target working families, lower-income Americans, rural Americans, senior citizens and others who cannot afford the financial burden of paying for the use of those who choose to discriminate against us.  To put it more simply, why should lower-income Americans be forced to pay for the excessive abuses of the minority of Internet users who consume disproportionate bandwidth?

I therefore petition the Commission to issue the following as Declaratory Rulings:

• That the protections specified in the Principles adopted by the FCC with regard to my right for non-discriminatory access to Internet content using the applications and devices of my choosing be clarified to extend to users and applications that actively discriminate against me by using a disproportionate percentage of the available shared bandwidth on my network.
• That network operators be required to implement reasonable practices to ensure that this discriminatory behavior does not occur, and that the Internet access and use of any one subscriber is not unfairly diminished, degraded or blocked by the actions of any other user or application.

Regards,

Dave McClure

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