Back in June the FCC defeated the broadband industry's legal assault against net neutrality rules. The landmark victory upheld not only the agency's net neutrality rules, but Tom Wheeler's decision to reclassify ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. Ever since, ISPs have prompted loyal politicians to hold a series of show pony hearings intended to scold the agency for standing up to large ISPs, while also trying to kill FCC funding and authority using sneaky budget bill riders.
But now these ISPs are headed back to court once again to try and challenge the rules. Or so they hope. The wireless industry's policy and lobbying group, the CTIA, is
leaking word to several news outlets that the group will request an en banc review from the full 9-member DC Circuit Court of Appeals. They will also be likely joined by AT&T, even though most telecom legal experts expect the attempt to go nowhere:
quote:
The industry's latest attack on the net-neutrality rules is not technically an appeal. Instead, it is a request for the case to be argued again before all of the court's judges. Legal analysts on either side of the issue say the attempt is a long shot, one that may be more about trying to create the impression of uncertainty as the FCC attempts to put its rules into practice.
AT&T has promised a
Supreme Court appeal of the ruling, though telecom policy wonks argue that avenue is even less likely to see success, because the FCC's legal victory was fairly comprehensive, and the Supreme Court simply doesn't hear all that many cases. ISPs aren't willing to let the issue rest in large part because the FCC intends to take its restored authority under Title II to craft
new broadband consumer privacy protections. That upsets AT&T, Verizon and Comcast -- all of which are expending (at various speeds) more deeply into Internet media and advertising.
