Free Press, MAP, File First Challenges to FCC Net Neutrality Order
Free Press sought judicial review of the FCC’s December 2010 net neutrality order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston. Free Press is based in Boston. Meanwhile, the Mountain Area Information Network, based in Asheville, N.C., also challenged the order in 4th Circuit in Richmond, and the Media Mobilizing Project filed a challenge in the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia. Both are represented by the Media Access Project.
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Free Press challenged the FCC’s decision to “adopt one set of rules for broadband access via mobile platforms and a different set of rules for broadband access via fixed platform,” according to its Wednesday petition for review. Doing so violates the Communications Act and is “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise contrary to law,” it said.
Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood said the group’s goal is to strengthen the rules. “Our challenge will show that there is no evidence in the record to justify this arbitrary distinction between wired and wireless Internet access,” Wood said. “The disparity that the FCC’s rules create is unjust and unjustified. And it’s especially problematic because of the increasing popularity of wireless, along with its increasing importance for younger demographics and diverse populations who rely on mobile devices as their primary means for getting online."
The other two challenges raise similar questions about the order and the distinction it draws between wireless and wireline broadband. Verizon and MetroPCS are expected to file appeals in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The result is questions about where the challenge will ultimately be heard. Net neutrality opponents hope it’s the D.C. Circuit, which they believe will be more skeptical of the FCC’s reasoning in the order and more likely to overturn it.
"There is a considerably better than a 50-50 chance that all of the net neutrality rules will be thrown out on the basis the Commission lacks authority to regulate Internet services in the way it did,” said Free State Foundation President Randolph May, a net neutrality critic. “In any event, in light of the differences between wireless and wireline networks, the odds that Free Press will succeed in arguing the FCC acted arbitrarily in treating wireless more flexibly are close to zero."
CTIA Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe questioned the logic of the Free Press challenge. “I don’t know what Free Press is reading, but as the FCC noted during the proceeding, wireless is different,” he said. “There is ample evidence on the record that proves this."
Relations between the White House and the FCC have become strained over the net neutrality rules, a former FCC official told us. President Barack Obama and his team are frustrated that the net neutrality order was too watered down, the official said. The matter has disappeared from his campaign’s talking points.