The battle over net neutrality is only just beginning. With the publication in the Federal Register, the FCC's controversial net neutrality rules are now official and open to legal challenges. The commission first published the rules in February, but didn't officially go on the books until their publication in the Federal Register. While the new regulations are now on the Federal Register, they won't formally go into effect on June 12.
US Telecom, which made its intentions known last month, has already formally filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C., arguing that the FCC had no authority to pass its rules. According to US Telecom President Walter McCormick, the rules are an "unjustifiable shift backward to common carrier regulation after more than a decade of significantly expanded broadband access and services for consumers under light-touch regulation."
The rules re-classified broadband as a telecom service rather than an information service in order to get the FCC more legal authority to regulate ISPs. This isn't the first time the FCC has attempted to rewrite the rules. In 2010, they tried to make changes in regards to net neutrality but were blocked by a successful lawsuit brought by Verizon.
Public ISPs argue they adhere to net neutrality rules on their own and do not need the interference of the FCC. The agency, however, says that the new rules provide a means for consumers to complain about potential nefarious activities of ISPs. Congress is considering a bill that would strip the FCC of its authority to re-classify broadband, but it has not seen any significant action.
Matt Wood, policy director of Free Press, which supports the rules, said today that "publication of the rules brings us one step closer to having the enforceable Net Neutrality protections that millions of Americans have called for."
"While Internet service providers will spend buckets of money to woo Congress and file lawsuits, people everywhere will continue fighting for the open Internet protections they won," Wood said.
This is sure to be only the beginning in a string of lawsuits brought by various telecom and Internet providers around the country that are seeking to block the adoption of these new regulations. While telecom companies believe that they already embrace net neutrality, many other services such as Netflix will most likely disagree. For now, net neutrality is now a matter for the courts to decide and it could be some time before we hear a final ruling on the matter and know what the future of net neutrality will mean to millions of consumers around the country.
