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<tr><td><b>Comment Number: </b></td><td>527031-00028</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Received: </b></td><td>2/15/2007 9:09:29 AM</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Organization: </b></td><td></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Commenter: </b></td><td>U. George</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>State: </b></td><td>NJ</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Agency: </b></td><td>Federal Trade Commission</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rule: </b></td><td>Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy</td></tr>

<tr><td>No Attachments</td></tr></Table>

<hr><P><b>Comments:</b></p>I'm not sure as to why many of the panelists think that the blockage of internet ports has been resolved by Madison River case. One has to only look at http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/pages/mail.html that a complete business model was created just to handle ISP's blockage of e-mail service. "Are you just trying to run an honest spam free mail service?", as DNSMADEEASY.com states. Is "your ISP blocking incoming or outgoing port 25?" The few outsourced e-mail services companies that currently exist could only thrive if there were customers for which the customers' ISP has trashed the service level, or became indifferent to the service level that is provided. From my own experience I have filed a complaint regarding AOL's e-mail blockage policy. I mailed it to the FCC. The FCC said not our problem, and forwarded the complaint to the FTC. The FTC said thanks, End of story. Yet from the hypotheticals presented by the panelists, one thinks that my complaint just didn't exist. Maybe it was ignored by the FTC and the panelists because there was a need to emphase the need to not regulate when there aren't any other cases of "Madison River" in the internet community. So where is my complaint? There was only one panelist that factually presented the case that Verizon, to this day, routinely blocks access to internet port(s). Verizon has been doing this for many years. At the time it was alleged to be a network security (DoS) issue. But I am really concerned that the majority of panelists that have touched upon the issue, have no real experience. The issue will remain hypothetical if panelists just dont want to begin an investigation into such practices. Its not terribly hard to begin an investigation. Just write a letter to the largest ISP's asking them if they block any internet services. Ask them if they have gotten any complaints? One should find, if the ISP's were honest, that service blockage is just not a theory. </body></html>