Verizon Communications on Friday challenged the Federal Communications Commission's “Net neutrality" rules, becoming the second organization this week to file an appeal.
The New York-based communications giant asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review FCC rules that were crafted to preserve the openness of the Internet and impose obligations and restrictions on landline and wireless broadband providers like AT&T, Comcast, MetroPCS and Verizon.
“We are deeply concerned by the FCC’s assertion of broad authority to impose potentially sweeping and unneeded regulations on broadband networks and services and on the Internet itself," said Michael E. Glover, Verizon senior vice president and deputy general counsel, in a statement. “We believe this assertion of authority is inconsistent with the statute and will create uncertainty for the communications industry, innovators, investors and consumers."
The FCC is gearing up for a battle in court to protect rules that it claims provide certainty.
“We will vigorously oppose any effort to disrupt or unsettle that certainty, which ensures that the Internet remains an engine for job creation innovation and economic growth,” an FCC spokesman told Politico.
The rules will become effective on Nov. 20 – 11 months after the FCC voted to adopt the Open Internet Order.
Verizon previously filed an appeal before the rules were published in the Federal Register, but the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. threw the case out because the appeal was premature.
Verizon is the second organization to formally challenge the rules this week, joining Free Press, a non-profit organization that filed an appeal in Boston and claimed the FCC cannot justify its decision to distinguish between wired and wireless Internet access.
One of the new rules requires both fixed and mobile broadband providers to reveal their network management practices, performance and characteristics, and commercial terms of their broadband service. But fixed broadband providers like Comcast and Verizon face more restrictions than wireless broadband companies, including a prohibition against unreasonably discriminating in transmitting lawful network traffic.
The rules were published on Sept. 23 in the Federal Register.
