USTelecom Takes FCC Side in One Net Neutrality Challenge

It's complicated. USTelecom, which has challenged the FCC's justification for new open Internet rules, has asked a federal Court for permission to weigh in in support of the FCC.

Specifically, the trade group, which represents telco ISPs, has asked permission of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to intervene on behalf of the FCC in the single challenge of the FCC's Title II-based rules by Full Service Network, which argues the FCC was not regulatory enough.

"Unlike all of the other petitioners that have filed petitions to date, these Petitioners intend to argue that the FCC should have imposed even more regulation on providers of broadband Internet access service, including USTelecom’s member companies," it told the court in explaining why it would be taking the FCC's side.

If it got intervenor status, it could file a brief arguing why the FCC should not have imposed more regs than it did. USTelecom made it clear it was only siding with the FCC against the call for more regs, not against any of the other petitions — like its own — that have been filed against Title II as an over, not under, reach.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.