Net Neutrality Suits Pile Up

April 16, 2015
Legal challenges to the FCC's recent Open Internet Order are piling up. The NCTA, ACA, CTIA and AT&T (NYSE:T) have joined USTelecom ...
Legal challenges to the FCC's recent Open Internet Order are piling up. The NCTA, ACA, CTIA and AT&T (NYSE:T) have joined USTelecom in filing suit with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Commission's controversial Title II utility-style regulation.

In a statement, NCTA President and CEO Michael Powell wrote, in part, "This appeal is not about net neutrality but the FCC's unnecessary action to apply outdated utility style regulation to the most innovative network in our history."

American Cable Association President and CEO Matthew M. Polka's statement says, in part, "Although the ACA and its small and medium-sized cable operator members supported the adoption of rules to protect the openness of the Internet, ACA is challenging the FCC's Open Internet Order today because the FCC's specific means of achieving this common goal - reclassifying broadband Internet providers as common carriers - are legally unsupportable and a step backward."

CTIA Chairman of the Board Ron Smith wrote: "With today's filing, CTIA seeks to protect the competitive mobile marketplace that thrived under a deregulatory framework for decades. The FCC's new Internet rules are full service regulations that will harm mobile consumers and providers across the country, as well as our nation's wireless future."

The FCC adopted the Open Internet Order on Feb. 26 and released the text of the Order on March 12. The first legal challenge came on March 24 with a suit filed by USTelecom.