US Telecom Association challenging FCC’s net neutrality rules
WASHINGTON – In a move that surprised nobody, trade group US Telecom Association, which represents carriers Verizon and AT&T among others, filed suit against the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet order less than 12 hours after the document was published in the Federal Register.
US Telecom President Walter McCormick said in a statement: “In challenging the legality of the FCC’s Open Internet order, US Telecom believes the FCC used the wrong approach to implementing net neutrality standards, which our industry supports and incorporates into everyday business practice.”
The challenge was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The appeal is challenging the “unjustifiable shift backward to common carrier regulation after more than a decade of significantly expanded broadband access and services for consumers under light-touch regulation,” McCormick said.
The trade group argues that the FCC move reverses legal precedent and “slows innovation, chills investment and leads to increased costs on consumers.”
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Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has characterized net neutrality as ‘Obamacare for the Internet.’
Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Technology, has also threatened legislation to change the tenets of net neutrality.
Walden and House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) released a joint statement: “The inevitable legal wrangling has begun. These filings are the first in what will undoubtedly be years of challenges spurred by the FCC’s unnecessary and inappropriate regulation of the Internet.
“Congress has the opportunity to change this poorly chosen course and enact durable solutions that protect consumers. The door remains open to our colleagues so we can make Open Internet protections a reality.”