The First Net Neutrality Complaint Under The 2015 Rules Is Likely To Lose, And That’s A Good Thing.

[Commentary] A company called Commercial Network Services (CNS) has filed the first network neutrality complaint under the Federal Communications Commission’s new rules -- which went into effect June 12 after the DC Circuit denied a stay request. While I probably should not prejudge things, I expect the FCC to deny the complaint for the excellent reason that -- accepting all the facts alleged as true -- Time Warner Cable did absolutely nothing wrong. I elaborate on what CNS gets wrong, why this differs from other high-profile disputes like Cogent and Level 3, and why such an illustration is good for the FCC’s rules as a whole in this piece.

CNS doesn’t allege that TWC suddenly changed their policy or that a facially neutral policy discriminates against a particular application. They basically say, “Hey! I want free peering because that would be good for TWC’s subscribers.” We had that argument in the mid/late 1990’s when differentiation in the network moved us from free peering for everyone that could plausibly lay claim to being a “backbone” provider to formal peering policies that created the modern peering and transit market.