Free Press: Cable and Phone Lobby's Desperate Legal Moves Are Just 'Sour Grapes' About Net Neutrality Ruling

WASHINGTON — On Friday, several phone and cable companies and their lobbying groups formally requested en banc review of June’s D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order. Friday is the deadline for parties to file such petitions for a rehearing of the appellate panel’s decision by all of the judges who sit in the D.C. Circuit.

On June 14, a panel of three judges ruled in support of the FCC’s decision in all respects, deciding that the agency exercised its proper authority when it reclassified broadband internet access as a telecom service under Title II of the Communications Act. Free Press intervened in the case to defend the FCC decision alongside two-dozen public interest groups, social justice organizations and tech companies.

The FCC reclassified broadband internet access in February 2015. The open internet rules went into effect in June 2015, and use the agency’s Title II authority to prevent internet service providers from blocking, censoring, throttling or degrading online content, services and applications.

As of noon on Friday, the wireless trade group CTIA, phone-company trade group USTelecom, cable lobbying groups NCTA and ACA, and providers CenturyLink and Alamo had filed petitions. More petitions may be filed by the end of the day. Such requests for en banc rehearing are rarely granted.

Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood made the following statement:

“These requests for en banc review are sour grapes from industry dead-enders who are determined to dismantle the FCC’s successful Net Neutrality rules in spite of their many failed attempts to do so. The D.C. Circuit was abundantly clear when it upheld the FCC last month. The court found that the FCC had acted on its well-defined authority to prevent internet service providers from unfairly interfering with our communications. The D.C. Circuit deferred to the FCC’s determination that its authority to do so stands on bedrock communications law. And the judges recognized the vital role the open internet plays in our society.

“The broadband industry has been doing just fine since the FCC adopted the Open Internet Order a year and a half ago. Not one of the industry’s doom-and-gloom predictions has come true. The order didn’t dampen investment or revenues for broadband providers, and internet users have added confidence that their rights to connect and communicate are protected.

“Last-ditch efforts like these petitions are unlikely to succeed. Big phone and cable companies obviously have plenty of money to waste on high-priced lawyers. But they should give up their foolish quest to overturn rules that benefit internet users.”