A group of U.S. telcos is suing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its decision to reclassify broadband service as a utility under its revised net neutrality rules.
In a lawsuit filed on Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, lobby group USTelecom, which counts major telcos and ISPs among its membership, argued that the adoption by the FCC of Title II of the Communications Act as the legal framework for regulating the Internet is "arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion," and called for the rules to be reviewed.
Regulating broadband providers under Title II subjects them to much closer scrutiny over how they manage traffic on their networks, and prevents them from striking commercial deals with online players to prioritise their services. They apply to both fixed and mobile carriers.
"The focus of our legal appeal will be on the FCC’s decision to reclassify broadband Internet access service as a public utility service after a decade of amazing innovation and investment under the FCC’s previous light-touch approach," Jon Banks, SVP of USTelecom, in a statement.
"As our industry has said many times, we do not block or throttle traffic and FCC rules prohibiting blocking or throttling will not be the focus of our a ppeal," he said.
The new net neutrality rules were issued on 12 March but have yet to appear on the Federal Register. USTelecom said it opted to file a lawsuit now to avoid potentially missing a deadline for filing for review. However, it is worth noting that the new rules will not come into effect until 60 days after their publication on the Federal Register.
In a report by Reuters, the FCC said USTelecom’s legal challenge is "premature and subject to dismissal."
