MIKE ARMSTRONG: Coming up: A Comcast Bill of Rights? Will you have the right to keep downloading movies? We’ll tell you about the cable giant’s latest efforts to defuse an internet controversy. And two local companies give up on a drug to treat Hepatitis C. Philadelphia Business Today starts now.

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MIKE ARMSTONG: Comcast and the Federal Communications Commission have been at odds over how the cable giant manages internet traffic over its broadband network. Philadelphia’s Comcast has been trying to come up with a solution, working with file sharing software providers. Call it the Comcast Bill of Rights. What is it? I asked Inquirer reporter Bob Fernandez earlier today.

I’m here with Inquirer reporter Bob Fernandez and, Bob, what is the Comcast Bill of Rights?

BOB FERNANDEZ: We don’t know yet, Mike, because it hasn’t been written. Probably in the next year or so, by the end of 2008, net- Comcast and Pando Networks and some other companies will draft this. I think what Comcast wants to signal, by calling it a “Bill of Rights,” is they’re going to be very open and transparent about how they treat content providers on the- on the internet, whether they’re going to slow down their traffic, when they’re going to slow it down and they’re going to try to tell consumers what to expect when they’re going online and whether their…their experience on the internet is going to be interrupted. Comcast has been criticized a lot in the last several months for not being open about what it’s done, how it’s managed its traffic on the internet and this has triggered this federal investigation which has become a big problem for the company.

MIKE ARMSTRONG: Do people in the industry expect the FCC to make a significant change in how it approaches internet regulation?

BOB FERNANDEZ: Several months ago…most experts didn’t think Kevin Martin, the FCC chairman, would draft new regulations or tell a company how to manage its- the internet, because there’s very little regulation on the internet. But he’s now held two hearings, today will be a second hearing on Comcast’s network management practices and some think he’s- he could be ready to draft some sort of regulation that will tell the company how it has to manage the internet. And…and…the telecom industry is very worried about that.

MIKE ARMSTRONG: You know, Bob, we’ve been reading about these FCC investigations involving Comcast and they face a lot of customer service challenges. How is the company doing?

BOB FERNANDEZ: You know, I think it’s doing pretty well. This is a bad economy, but…they’re projecting 8-10% revenue growth. They have these issues with customer service. I think they’re trying to get ahead of those. They’ve hired some- a lot of new employees and they say they’re going to quit outsourcing some of their customer service. And with the FCC investigation, they’re trying to get ahead of it. They’re trying to signal with this Bill of Rights that, “Hey, we’re going to work with the industry and we’re going to solve this, so the government doesn’t need to come in and regulate us.”

MIKE ARMSTRONG: Thank you very much. Inquirer staff reporter Bob Fernandez.

ViroPharma and Wyeth have halted work on a possible treatment for Hepatitis C. You can blame safety concerns for this one. Researchers noticed an increase in liver toxicity and that spurred the drug companies to stop clinical testing last August. After reviewing the data, Exton’s ViroPharma and Collegeville’s Wyeth determined that the risks were too high to continue developing the drug.

That’s it for today.  Tomorrow, another installment of Ask Joe D.  At the Inquirer, I’m Mike Armstrong for Philadelphia Business Today.

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