Reclassifying Broadband as a Title II Telecommunications Service: A Legal and Policy Assessment

A coalition of Internet service providers asked an academic skeptic of network neutrality to do a legal assessment of proposed broadband reclassification and, surprisingly, Yoo concludes it is a bad idea.

Yoo finds that reclassification would conflict with the plain language of the statutes enacted by Congress, the unbroken line of prior Federal Communications Commission decisions, and the reasoning of the Supreme Court's Brand X decision. As such, it is unlikely to survive judicial scrutiny. He finds that the history of common carriage regulation suggests that reclassifying broadband Internet access as a Title II service is likely to create serious implementation problems.

He suggests that the appearance of a new communications technology is likely eventually to require new legislation.