In a media release headlined "FCC Should Deny Network Management Petitions," The Progress & Freedom Foundation outlined details of comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission in regards to recent petitions urging the prohibition of certain network management tools.

[PFF President Ken] Ferree and [Senior Fellow Bret] Swanson note that traffic shaping is used, and accepted, by a multitude of other industries and federal intervention in broadband traffic management would undermine the property rights of network operators.

In the filing, Ferree and Swanson, Director of PFF's Center for Global Innovation, note that a variety of industries use tools to shape traffic. "[W]hen a busy signal greets our attempt to call home on Mother's Day we do not file a complaint with the FCC, the 'singles' lift lines at ski resorts do not incite consumer riots, and early-bird specials at chain restaurants are all but de rigueur," Ferree and Swanson explain. "Those who provide services to the public generally use some tool to shape demand for the benefit of all users."

"The use of buffering, queuing, scheduling, marking, labeling, parsing, replicating, prioritizing, modifying, metering, policing, collision avoiding, packet re-setting, and packing re-sending is becoming ubiquitous," [Ferree and Swanson] explain. "Today's newest communications equipment is specifically designed for ever-more fine grained 'traffic management' so that 'triple play services' - voice, data, video - and service level agreements - SLAs - can be delivered efficiently and robustly on converged networks." Moreover, if traffic management is federally regulated, it would drive down investment and hinder broadband infrastructure expansion.