Barely two week after the release of the FCC’s new net neutrality rules there have been two lawsuits filed asking the courts to set aside the new rules. This is one of the quickest reactions to an FCC order that I can remember.

One petition was filed by the USTelecom Association with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. This is the trade group representing Verizon, AT&T, and other large telcos and ISPs. The second was filed with the US Court of Appeals in New Orleans by Alamo Broadband, a small ISP from Texas.

The lawsuits are a bit surprising because the FCC hasn’t yet published the new rules in the federal register, meaning that they are not yet in effect. There is a good chance that these two suits will be dismissed for being prematurely filed, but there is no doubt that these and other cases will be filed once the order has been officially published. It’s rumored that the CTIA plans to file an appeal on behalf of all of the large cable companies. Challenges by the trade groups will save AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast from having to challenge the FCC directly.

As expected, the suits challenge the FCC’s authority to impose Title II regulation on broadband. USTelecom refers to this as ‘utility-style regulation’, although the FCC provided forbearance on most of the regulatory requirements that apply to telcos and CLECs.

I’m not a lawyer, but I recall a lot of dismay in the industry when the FCC decided many years ago to classify the Internet as an information service rather than as a utility. My opinion is that all they have done by this ruling is to set straight the mistake they made years ago, and that they always have had the option to regulate the Internet under Title II. But of course, the courts are going to be the ones to decide the extent of the FCC’s jurisdiction.

One thing is clear, if these lawsuits succeed the FCC is basically out of options and net neutrality will probably be dead.

The final net neutrality rules are somewhat simple and straightforward and make four distinct points:

• No Blocking. The order says there can be no blocking of transmissions of lawful content, although the order allows ISPs to refuse to transmit unlawful material such as child pornography or copyright-infringing materials.
• No throttling. ISPs are not allowed to slow down content. This means that everything delivered to customers must have the same priority.
• No Paid Prioritization. While this is similar to the no throttling rule, it applies more to the network between content providers and the ISPs and means that companies can’t arrange deals that provide for preferential treatment. They might still need to pay for interconnection, but they can’t use that process to gain an advantage over other content.
• Case-by-case challenges. The FCC took an approach similar to Canada’s net neutrality rules, and rather than lay out a lot of specific net neutrality rules they will look at specific cases in the future that are brought to their attention. I think this is a wise choice because our networks and technology can change faster than any rules, and this process will allow net neutrality rules to keep up with changes in technology.

Assuming the courts allow the current rules to stand, that last rule means that net neutrality is never going to be finished. The intent of the three major rules are pretty clear, but as the FCC hears future cases they will be crafting more detailed rulings on specific topics. So, while there are no detailed restrictions in this order, over time a body of rules concerning net neutrality will grow as the result of rulings on challenges. This means that it’s likely there will always be lawsuits floating around on net neutrality topics.

I also foresee one other danger for net neutrality. Modifying net neutrality over time on a case-by-case basis will make the whole process subject to the whim of future FCC commissioners. In recent years the FCC has tended to bend and sway with changes in the administration, and so we may suffer through conflicting rulings from different FCC commissioners. But I guess before we worry too much about this we’ll have to wait a while to see if the courts allow these rules to stand.