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First Lawsuits Challenging FCC's New Net Neutrality Rules Arrive
An anonymous reader writes: A small ISP based in Texas and an industry trade group have become the first to file lawsuits challenging the FCC's recent net neutrality rules. The trade group, USTelecom, argues that the regulations are not "legally sustainable." Alamo Broadband claims it is facing "onerous requirements" by operating under Title II of the Communications Act. Such legal challenges were expected, and are doubtless the first of many — but few expected them to arrive so soon. While some of the new rules were considered "final" once the FCC released them on March 12, others don't go into effect until they're officially published in the Federal Register, which hasn't happened yet.
The FCC also heavily regulated the telecom industry. We had no innovation for decades. We had to pay per minute fees for long distance calls. Do you want that sort of environment for the internet?
The rule says they can't charge more for faster access, among other things. Which is intended to prevent making "fast lanes".
It would have the interesting side-effect of making a sizable chunk of existing consumer plans unlawful, since most, if not all, ISP's offer several tiers of access - pay $50, get 50mb/s (or whatever), pay $100, get 75mb/s, pay gobs more, get 1Tb/s, that sort of thing.
As an example, AT&T offers five different rates for internet access, ranging from 3mb/s to 75 mb/s. So, four of those rate plans just became unlawful under the rule. Which I imagine would force AT&T to drop the four higher speed plans, since they can't provide all the speeds at every location....
While I doubt seriously the FCC has a problem with that, the fact that it's in the rules that they picked to enforce means it's available as lawsuit material just whenever someone decides to pull out lawyers against an ISP....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"