The First Lawsuits Challenging the new Net Neutrality Rules
Less than a month after the FCC classified the internet as Title II, making it a utility, we now have our first set of lawsuits opposing the new rules. The industry group USTelcom — which includes several of the nation’s largest internet service providers — filed a lawsuit in Washington DC challenging the new FCC regulations. Independently, a small Texas internet service provider, Alamo Broadband Inc., has also filed suit in New Orleans against the FCC.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler holding an invisible sandwich
USTelcom President Walter McCormick explained that they do not believe the FCC’s “move to utility-style regulation invoking Title II authority is legally sustainable,” and as such have filed a petition to protect their “procedural rights”.
Alamo Broadband petitioned that they are “aggrieved by the Order and possesses standing to challenge it,” claiming the regulations are “in excess of the Commission’s authority” and that it is “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion”.
What everyone needs to understand is what the big internet service providers want is more and more money. The internet service providers have already received in excess of 200 Billion Dollars of your taxpayer money to build out a fiber optic infrastructure in the US – the likes of which have clearly not been done. So, how do they squeeze even more money out of their already lucrative business? Start charging companies like Netflix, Hulu, and Google large amounts of money to get their services on their “fast lane” so users can access it quicker than other services not paying the bribe – er.. uh fee.
What you would have is large companies who can afford this fee, paying it reluctantly, but your small businesses who may have become the next Netflix never becoming that due to the costs associated with being accessed at a certain speed.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/23/net-neutrality-lawsuits/
http://www.ustelecom.org/who-we-are/leadership/board-directors
Alamo Broadband Inc. Petition – scanned in by some intern on very thin paper
US Telcom Petition – at least they got it scanned in straight
