Wireless Group Sides With FCC in Net Neutrality Suit

The net neutrality battle took another turn Wednesday, with CTIA, the wireless trade group, intervening in one of the cases looking to alter the FCC's rules. But it might not be the one you'd imagine. Though one of its members, Verizon, has asked the court to strike down the FCC's rules, CTIA is staying neutral on that point and is instead moving to intervene in a case filed by consumer group Free Press. D.C.-based Free Press sued the FCC in late September arguing that its net neutrality rules do not go far enough in respect to wireless companies. The group's lawsuit, filed in a Boston appeals court, seeks to "challenge the arbitrary nature of rule provisions that provide less protection for mobile wireless Internet access than they do for wired connections." Essentially, Free Press is irked that the net neutrality rules do not apply to wireless and wireline broadband providers equally. After a long back and forth, the FCC decided that wireless was still an emerging market and only imposed some of its rules on the industry. Naturally, CTIA wants to keep it that way, and does not want Free Press to prevail. While wireless companies might prefer no intervention at all on the issue, if it has to happen, this hybrid approach that puts wireless in a special category is preferable to one that treats all broadband providers alike, whether they be fixed or mobile. "As the leading trade association for the wireless communications industry, CTIA also has a significant interest in defending the FCC's decision not to impose additional regulatory burdens on mobile broadband providers," CTIA said in its filing. "CTIA's interests (as well as those of its members) would be directly affected by a decision of this Court to stay, modify, affirm, or set aside the Order." The FCC approved its net neutrality rules in December and they officially go into effect on November 20. For those who need a refresher, net neutrality is the concept that everyone should have equal access to the Web. Amazon should not be able to pay to have its Web site load faster than a mom-and-pop e-commerce site, for example. After Comcast was accused of blocking P2P sites, however, the FCC decided to craft rules that would ban ISPs from discriminating based on content. It was OK to slow down your entire network during peak times, for example, but you couldn't block a particular site, like BitTorrent. The rules approved by the FCC give the commission the authority to step into disputes about how ISPs are managing their networks or initiate their own investigations if they think ISPs are violating its rules. While companies like Verizon might agree with net neutrality in principle, they argue that the FCC did not have the authority to hand down such rules. Verizon filed suit recently on those grounds, but CTIA said it "does not seek to intervene" in that case. The FCC has asked that the court toss the Verizon suit.