The group of U.S. telcos challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) net neutrality rules hit their first bump in the road late last week after the regulator denied their petitions to block the legislation.
The watchdog’s revised Open Internet Order was published to the Federal Register on 13 April, prompting a raft of legal challenges from telcos and lobby groups seeking to delay its enactment.
AT&T, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), CTIA, USTelecom, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA), the American Cable Association (ACA), and CenturyLink allege that the net neutrality rules are arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion on the part of the FCC.
"The stay requests are contrary to the public interest," said the FCC, in a document published on Friday.
The opponents did not challenge the so-called ‘bright-line’ rules contained within the new law, which prevent fixed and mobile broadband providers from blocking access to legal content, applications and services, and from establishing commercial agreements with online service providers to prioritise their traffic. Rather they dispute the legal framework adopted by the FCC, namely Title II of the Communications Act, which reclassifies broadband as a utility rather than an information s ervice, subjecting it to closer scrutiny over how traffic is managed by network operators.
This reclassification, the group claims, could stifle future investment in the sector.
However, the FCC pointed out that broadband providers were already subject to a broadly similar set of rules under its previous Open Internet Order, which was struck down by an appeals court in January 2014.
"Using [the] petitioners’ logic, the simple act of being made subject to such general conduct standards would have irreparably harmed their business’ investment, innovation, and customers. It did not," the FCC said, reiterating that it has refrained from adopting some of the more onerous sections of the Communications Act, which would have given it the power to impose tariff regulation.
"The [Open Internet] Order is both essential to protect consumers and innovators from harms arising from a lack of openness and best serves the public interest," the FCC said.
