AT&T is the latest organization to challenge the legality of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) net neutrality rules in court.
The Internet service provider (ISP) has filed on Tuesday a lawsuit against the FCC requesting the court to declare unlawful the third set of rules, which proposes to reclassify AT&T and other broadband and wireless service providers as telecommunications services instead of information service providers under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act.
Unlike Verizon, Comcast, and other ISPs, which have chosen to take FCC to court under the representation of industry associations of which they are members of, AT&T decided to wage its legal war against the commission on its own.
However, like the trade groups USTelecom, American Cable Association, CTIA Wireless Association, and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which have all filed separate lawsuits against the FCC, AT&T says in its petition for review filed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the net neutrality rules are "arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion."
Moreover, the ISP says the FCC, in proposing to regulate wired and wireless service providers as public utilities, violates the Communications Act and the Constitution.
The FCC is not surprised by the slew of lawsuits being filed against it in light of the new net neutrality rules, which were recently published in the Federal Register and are open for questioning within the next 60 days from publication. On June 12, the new rules will come into effect, unless the court decides otherwise.
The broadband and wireless industry as a whole questions the FCC's authority to create and impose net neutrality rules and are particularly against a provision that reclassifies ISPs as public utilities like telephone service providers. The industry argues that, with heavy-handed regulation by the FCC, ISPs will be less likely to invest in better networks and other innovations and will be more prone to tariffs and taxes imposed by the FCC, a claim that the FCC has denied.
But the FCC, backed by the support of Pres. Barack Obama, also faces another enemy in the form of Republicans in Congress, who are gathering their forces to pass a resolution of disapproval for the net neutrality rules. What the lawmakers are proposing in its stead is a law that would prohibit ISPs from creating Internet fast lanes without having to reclassify them as common carriers.
However, for a resolution of disapproval to succeed, Congress will need the signature of the president, who has strongly expressed his support for Title II reclassification.
Photo: Mike Mozart | Flickr
