Well that didn’t take long.
Media and telecom reform group Free Press on Wednesday fired the first salvo against the Federal Communications Commission for applying more lenient network non-discrimination rules to the wireless industry.
The group had in effect reiterated their opposition to the FCC’s new rules last week when they made their formal debut. The group’s Director of Public Policy Matt Wood had characterized the rules as “riddled with loopholes,” in a public statement at the time.
“They don’t do enough to stop the phone and cable companies from dividing the Internet into fast and slow lanes, and they fail to protect wireless users from discrimination that is already occurring in the marketplace and that will only get worse,” he said.
The commission’s so-called net neutrality rules require network providers not to arbitrarily discriminate against, block or slow down access to content on the internet, but the strictest rules apply to traditional network providers and not the wireless industry. The rules also require the landline companies to disclose their network management practices to their customers.
The rules became official last week when they were published in the Federal Register, but they don’t take effect until November 20th.
Free Press filed its legal challenge to the FCC in the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.
Verizon and MetroPCS are also expected to launch legal challenges against the FCC over the rules. They’d previously sued the FCC, but a federal court for the District of Columbia threw the suit out on a technicality.
