The CTIA Wireless Association today filed a request to stay the FCC’s Open Internet regulations.
The regulations were published in the Federal Register on April 13 and are slated to become official policy 60 days from the publication date (on or about June 13). Numerous organizations have already filed lawsuits seeking to block the rules entirely, but those suits won’t prevent them from going into effect at the 60-day mark.
As such, the CTIA and its members think it is vital to keep the current regulations in place until the lawsuits against the FCC have a chance to work their way through the courts.
“We are very confident the courts will ultimately reject the FCC’s abandonment of its highly successful bipartisan regulatory approach for mobile broadband,” said CTIA President Meredith Attwell Baker. “Today, with our stay petition, we are asking that the status quo be preserved during the pendency of our court challenge. We recognize that stays are not common, but the uncertainty and serious ramifications stemming from the FCC’s order requires CTIA to take every procedural step available to limit the impact of the FCC’s overreach. The United States leads the world in 4G wireless investment and innovation. CTIA seeks to preserve this winning environment while the courts decipher the FCC’s convoluted arguments.”
In the CTIA’s petition, it allowed that the three so-called “bright-line rules” (no throttling, no blocking, no paid prioritization) are not the issue; rather, it is concerned with the FCC’s intent to reclassify broadband under Title II regulations of the Telecommunications Act of 1934.
It argues allowing the FCC’s proposed rules to go into effect, even temporarily, could cause irreparable harm to internet and broadband companies.
The CTIA asked the FCC to respond no later than May 8. The FCC is confident the rules, as drafted, will withstand legal assaults.
