Appeals Court Rejects ISP Stay Of Neutrality Rules, Which Officially Go Live Tomorrow
from the live-to-fight-another-day dept
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied the broadband industry’s requested stay of the FCC’s reclassification of ISPs as common carriers under Title II, meaning the agency’s shiny new net neutrality rules will go live tomorrow as scheduled, much to the chagrin of the nation’s broadband duopoly. Incumbent ISPs requested the stay last month, claiming the FCC’s rules were “arbitrary and capricious,” “vague and onerous,” and act to create “significant uncertainty about the introduction of new services” while “exposing providers to costly litigation.”
According to the court order (pdf), broadband providers failed to provide “the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review,” meaning that the FCC’s new net neutrality rules will remain in place for the duration of the ISPs assault on the FCC. While the courts have promised to expedite it, a resolution to the case could still take more than a year. FCC boss Tom Wheeler was quick to take to the FCC website to applaud the ruling:
“This is a huge victory for Internet consumers and innovators! Starting Friday, there will be a referee on the field to keep the Internet fast, fair and open,” said the Commission boss. “Blocking, throttling, pay-for-priority fast lanes and other efforts to come between consumers and the Internet are now things of the past. The rules also give broadband providers the certainty and economic incentive to build fast and competitive broadband networks.”
While net neutrality opponents in the House have been trying all manner of poison pills and other efforts to kill the rules, hamstring the FCC, or curtail the agency’s budget, short of a court win — the only viable way to kill the rules moving forward is a 2016 party shift, FCC leadership change, and subsequent gutting of the agency’s order. Annoyed by recent blocked mergers and an uncharacteristically consumer friendly FCC boss bullish on broadband competition, you can be fairly certain that AT&T, Verizon and Comcast lobbyists are already very busy trying to ensure that a more incumbent-friendly scenario comes to fruition.
Filed Under: dc circuit, fcc, net neutrality, open internet
Comments on “Appeals Court Rejects ISP Stay Of Neutrality Rules, Which Officially Go Live Tomorrow”
What litigation?
“exposing providers to costly litigation.”
Would that be the litigation initiated by the broadband service providers attempting to protect their monopolistic positions?
I better say goodbye now!
I may not be able to tomorrow. Net Neutrality rules go into effect tomorrow. The intarwebtubes will explode!
Thanks TechDirt! I enjoyed your site for many years while the intarwebs were still working.
Re: I better say goodbye now!
No regrets, yeah?
So long and thanks for the fish!
So sad that it has come to this!
We tried to warn you all but oh dear!
You might not share our intellect,
which might explain your disrespect for the entirety of the internet!
So long so long and THANKS! For all the fish!
The internet’s about to be destroyed!
There’s no point getting all annoyed!
Lie back and let the internet dissolve(around you)!
Despite those trolling geeks,
We thought most of you were sweet.
Especially all your reposts and cat taxes!
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long and thanks
for all the fish!
If I had just one last wish
I would like one more pic
If we could just change one thing
We would have all learned to imgur
Come one and all
Man and Mammal
Side by Side in the internet
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long and,Thanks!
for all the fish!
We are still a nation of laws? I will keep my fingers crossed.
No more fastlane? Nutflex is going to by PISSED.
Re: Re:
There should not be fast lanes.
If you cannot get good enough Netflix service in your home, then it is YOUR LOCAL ISP’s fault. It is their job to deliver bandwidth to you from one or more other networks. Where that bandwidth originates (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube, No-Name, etc) is none of your ISP’s business.
Netflix pays handsomely for bandwidth at their end. Your local ISP needs to charge you enough to deliver good service at a competitive price while making a reasonable profit.
Re: Re: Re:
I agree that it is the ISPs responsibility to deliver the traffic that their customers request based on the ISPs contract with the customer. i.e. DIA, CIR, Best effort, etc.
On the other hand, there is the question of what to do about transit providers like Level3 becoming CDNs and then expecting to deliver that traffic over peering connections or paid transit connections. If Comcast et al are forced to peer with Level3 to accept any traffic Netflix wants to deliver from that CDN, should Level3 also be forced to peer with me to deliver that traffic for no cost?
Obviously, Netflix wants to deliver traffic over its lowest cost ($) connection (L3’s CDN service), and I want to receive it over my lowest cost connections (Cogent), but despite multiple BGP prepends, a large portion of our Netflix traffic is still delivered directly from Level3. Not much I can do about that except letting that connection get congested, or getting rid of it entirely.
Yeah, well, enjoy your new consumer-friendly FCC while it lasts. We’ll see how consumer-friendly they can be on a departmental budget of two dollars, three pieces of Monopoly money and a button.
Re: Re:
American Exceptionalism on display. Isn’t that special?
It’s exceptional how the needs and desires of the American people are routinely ignored while fat cats line their pockets.