Telecom industry unites to fight FCC net neutrality rules

The FCC’s Open Internet rules were approved in February and uphold the principle of net neutrality — that ISPs allow online content to load at the same speed. They rules forbid paid fast lanes favoring some content and say broadband providers can’t slow Web traffic or block content.

This week, the rules were posted in the Federal Register and will go into effect on June 12. The publication in the Federal Register opens the door to court challenges. Sure enough, this week, the major industry trade groups, including USTelecom, the National Cable Television Association, the American Cable Association, and CTIA: The Wireless Association, as well as AT&T, all filed suit in the DC U.S. Court of Appeals, asking that the rules be overturned.

This begins what will likely be years of litigation, the third such round as the FCC attempts to adopt legally-sustainable rules to protect an open Internet.

Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet (Federal Register, Apr. 13, 2015)
 
FCC net neutrality rules hit with new telecom lawsuits (Politico, Apr. 14, 2015)