USTA Supports Net Neutrality, Except When It Doesn’t

[Commentary] As more legal filings now start to arrive in the net neutrality lawsuit, one filing called a Statement of Issues to Be Raised, from the US Telecom Association (USTA), sheds some light on what at least some Internet service providers really think about net neutrality. USTA has now filed its “Statement of Issues to Be Raised” in the DC Circuit, which broadly lays out why USTA is challenging the FCC’s recent decision to reclassify broadband Internet access as a Title II telecommunications service and the Federal Communications Commission’s new open Internet rules. Unsurprisingly, USTA will argue that the FCC’s decision to reclassify broadband Internet access and assert authority over interconnection was unreasonable and violated the First and Fifth Amendments, and that the FCC did not give enough notice in its agency proceeding.

But USTA’s Statement of Issues also includes one more Issue: “Whether the specific rules the FCC adopted, including but not limited to its Internet conduct standard, exceed the agency’s authority, are arbitrary and capricious, or otherwise contrary to law.” In other words, USTA is challenging the very net neutrality rules that it says it supports. So, for those of you keeping score at home, USTA: (1) “strongly supports open Internet rules,” and also (2) is directly targeting the open Internet rules in court. Even if USTA loses its arguments over procedural notice and FCC authority, it will still tell the court to overturn the net neutrality rules on their own merits. The revelation that USTA does not, in fact, support net neutrality rules, may not actually shock anyone who’s been paying attention. But it’s worth calling out companies who pay lip service to net neutrality but will go to federal court to make sure we don’t actually have strong, enforceable net neutrality rules.