Here are the first lawsuits to challenge the FCC’s network neutrality rules

USTelecom -- a group that includes some of the nation's largest Internet providers -- and Alamo Broadband, a small, Texas-based Internet provider, are among the first to mount a legal challenge to the federal government's new network neutrality rules. USTelecom’s suit was filed in Washington (DC), while Alamo Broadband sued the FCC in New Orleans.

The court filings kick-start a legal effort to overturn the FCC's regulations, passed in February, that aim to keep Internet providers from speeding up, slowing down or blocking Web traffic. "We do not believe the Federal Communications Commission’s move to utility-style regulation invoking Title II authority is legally sustainable," USTelecom President Walter McCormick said. "Therefore, we are filing a petition to protect our procedural rights in challenging the recently adopted open Internet order.” In its petition, Alamo alleges that the FCC's net neutrality rules apply onerous requirements on it under Title II of the Communications Act, the same law that the FCC uses to monitor legacy phone service. "Alamo is thus aggrieved by the order and possesses standing to challenge it," the company's lawyers wrote. In a separate legal challenge filed March 20 in Cincinnati, Tennessee sued the FCC over its February decision to block the state's restriction on city-run Internet service. "The FCC has unlawfully inserted itself between the State of Tennessee and the State's own political subdivisions," the challenge alleges.