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FCC Fines N.Car. Provider $15K For Blocking Vonage: Page 3 of 3

While a $15,000 fine may not seem overly onerous, Citron said the fact that a fine was assessed quickly and forcefully could serve as a warning to other operators who might try the same tactic.

"Now that the world's on notice, if something like this happens again we'd expect an even stronger message and an even bigger fine [from the FCC]," Citron said.

Citron said Vonage did not contact Madison River directly, but instead took its findings to the FCC for the commission's advice on how to proceed. Citron said Vonage has since then detected "one or two other possible instances" of similar port-blocking from what he called "much smaller ISPs.

"Our hope is that they'll take notice of what the FCC did today, and if they are blocking ports, they'll stop," Citron said.