DrewClark.com

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. –  Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, is right now facing harsh scrutiny at the FCC’s hearing on Internet management practices today.

David Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast, just concluded his testimony at the FCC’s remote hearing at Harvard Law School here.

Cohen did not defend the “throttling” of Internet traffic passing through BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer application. But he also did not deny that Comcast had restricted the Internet speeds of BitTorrent users on Comcast’s network.

“We empower our customers to access any content or use any service or application that they desire,” said Cohen.

“To maximize our customer’s Internet experience, we do manage our Internet network,” Cohen continued. “There is nothing wrong with that. Every network must be managed.”

Cohen said that customers wanted active network management, he said, to help combat spam, and to ensure that a small percentage of heavy network users didn’t degrade the quality of lighter users.

Cohen did note that in allowing users to access BitTorrent — if it did so with a slight delay — Comcast was being more generous than the Harvard Medical School, which forbids peer-to-peer applications.