Did Verizon’s Net Neutrality Win Backfire?

Back when Verizon Communications was preparing a court challenge to the government’s 2010 network neutrality rules, some of its counterparts in the telecommunications and cable industries reached out with some advice: Don’t sue. Recent developments indicate they may have had a point.

Verizon’s victory earlier this year over the Federal Communications Commission in a net neutrality case before a federal court is now looking to many in the telecom and cable industries like a mistake. Rather than retreat from trying to enforce rules requiring equal treatment of traffic over Internet lines, the FCC raised the ante. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is considering a limited application of the restrictive Title II rules that give the commission a say in rates and terms of service on telephone lines. Chairman Wheeler and President Barack Obama also have indicated a desire to expand the rules to more fully cover wireless networks, which were largely exempted under the 2010 rules.