Broadband giants sue the FCC to stop new net neutrality rules


The only surprise here is the timing: On Monday, the lobbying group US Telecom filed what amounts to a placeholder lawsuit to block the Federal Communications Commission's decision to reclassify broadband internet as a Title II utility, as a way to enforce net neutrality. US Telecom counts among its members Verizon, AT&T, and other broadband heavyweights. Texas provider Alamo Broadband filed a similar, separate suit Monday with the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
US Telecom, which filed its suit with the federal appellate court in Washington, D.C., and Alamo jumped in because they didn't want their actual lawsuits to be dismissed on a technicality. The FCC says that challenges can be filed up to 60 days after its net neutrality rules are published in the Federal Register, expected in the next few days, but the broadband companies pointed to a 10-day window from when the FCC released its rules, on March 12.
The filings on Monday were light on details, but "the focus of our legal appeal will be on the FCC's decision to reclassify broadband internet access service as a public utility service after a decade of amazing innovation and investment under the FCC's previous light-touch approach," explains Jon Banks, a US Telecom senior vice president. Which, honestly, sounds more like lobbying than a legal appeal.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
August 23 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include deficit dimness, steamroller-in-chief, and more
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purge
Cartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?
In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year