A U.S. senator has urged the U.S. Department of Justice and theU.S. Federal Communications Commission to investigate whetherComcast is violating conditions imposed in its early 2011 mergerwith NBCUniversal. Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, questioned whether Comcast's recent decision to exempt its own Xfinity on demand service for the Microsoft Xbox 360 fromits broadband data cap violates the merger conditions set by theDOJ. "When the Obama administration signed off on Comcast's mergerwith NBCUniversal, it laid out a set of rules to prevent Comcastfrom squashing its competitors -- including popular cablealternatives -- and hurting consumers who have seen rapidlyrising cable rates over the last several years," Franken said in astatement. "If Comcast is violating the administration's orders,it should face significant penalties so consumers know they cancount on the administration to protect it from anticompetitiveconduct that could mean higher bills." Franken also raised concerns that Comcast's 250GB-per-month datacap will limit online video competition. "I was very dismayed to hear that Sony recently announced that it is reconsidering launching an Internet TV service becauseit is concerned that Comcast will impose data caps on itscompetitors' programming," he wrote in a letter to the two agencies. "The conditions your agencies adopted were designed to fosterinnovation and encourage competitors like Sony to enter the onlinevideo market. If Comcast is able to impose restrictive datacaps to the detriment of its competitors, I fear other companieslike Sony will choose not to compete with Comcast." Franken also objected to Comcast's refusal to put BloombergTelevision's channel near other business news channels in its cablelineup. The FCC ruled last week that Comcast should carry Bloomberg TV in the same channel"neighborhood" as other business news channels. Comcast played down Franken's concerns. Comcast is fully complyingwith -- and "indeed exceeding" -- the merger conditions, said SenaFitzmaurice, the company's vice president of governmentcommunications. Comcast's On Demand service is "indisputably" part of the company'scable TV service and not subject to the FCC's net neutrality rules,Fitzmaurice added in an email. "We are not aware of anyone who has taken a contrary view," shesaid. "When Comcast streams its own services over the openInternet, such streaming is subject to Comcast's broadband Internetdata usage standards. But the Xfinity app for the X-Box does notstream content over the open Internet." Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S.government for The IDG News Service . Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address isgrant_gross@idg.com. I am an expert from digital-metaldetector.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Bulletproof Products , China Archway Metal Detector, Hand Held Metal Detector,and more.
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