Partial Stay of Open Internet Rules Would Undercut Them Entirely, FCC, Intervenors Say

Telecommunications companies seeking a stay of the Federal Communications Commission network neutrality rules are using their tailored request to stay part of the rules as a way to undermine them entirely, the Federal Communications Commission and a group of intervenors said in separate May 22 filings. “Petitioners’ stay motion is not what it seems,” the FCC said in its filing. “It asks the Court to halt the application of Title II of the Communications Act to broadband, while allowing three bright-line rules to go into effect. But those bright-line rules are precisely the kind of regulation this Court held could not be applied until and unless broadband was reclassified as a ‘telecommunications service,' ” the FCC said.

The intervenors supporting the FCC rule made similar arguments, stating that the potential harms of a stay would be significantly greater to them than to the groups opposing the FCC rules. The intervenors include 22 online video and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone providers, competitive Internet service providers (ISPs), Internet backbone operators, venture capitalists and advocates for privacy, accessibility, consumers and social justice. “Many Intervenors depend on the pipes controlled by Petitioners for their customers to access Intervenors’ services, even as they compete with Petitioners themselves in the provision of those services,” they said. The intervenors also said examples of harm provided by smaller ISPs in the petitioners' motion for stay were a smokescreen for the “shrug with which the majority of the industry has greeted the Order.” Intervenors added that petitioners' “litigation-driven rhetoric is belied by what many of their members have represented to the capital markets.” They and the FCC cited statements by Comcast and Cablevision Systems that indicated that Title II-based rules wouldn't significantly impact their businesses.