Network neutrality rules could lead to legal quagmire

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is expected to propose new network neutrality rules -- regulating the Internet like a public utility to prevent fast lanes on the Internet -- to commissioners by Feb 5, with a vote expected at the commission's Feb. 26 meeting. He should expect pushback from Congress and the courts.

The new rules would likely increase the FCC's regulatory power to oversee the wired Net and mobile wireless as common carriers, like traditional telephone service, using Title II, a provision of the Communications Act of 1934. But the adoption of such regulatory powers will likely lead to lawsuits. But going the Title II route is a better option, some prominent law and communications professors argue. "A ban on paid prioritization will prevent broadband providers from slowing or breaking the virtuous cycle, particularly by chilling experimentation by emerging 'garage entrepreneurs,'" wrote three dozen university professors in a letter filed with the FCC and sent to the Federal Trade Commission. "If the next Facebook has to pay for an Internet fast lane, the next Mark Zuckerberg might go into investment banking instead of creating the next big new thing on the Internet."