DC Appeals Court Votes 2-1 to Uphold FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules

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fcc antennaThe Open Internet will remain open for business for now. Tuesday, federal DC Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to uphold the FCC’s net neutrality rules. The ruling comes despite a mammoth and expensive effort by carriers and Internet providers to reverse the rules that prevent them from blocking and slowing the transmission of content. The laws also prevent “paid prioritization,” paying an internet service provider (ISP) for faster delivery of content, noted USA Today.

Net neutrality has been strongly backed by President Barack Obama and wildly opposed by his foes on the other side. Former Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz has called it, “Obama Care for the Internet.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who championed the rules and cast one of the three commission votes to pass them, called the ruling “a victory for consumers and innovators who deserve unfettered access to the entire web, and it ensures the Internet remains a platform for unparalleled innovation, free expression and economic growth,” USA Today and Wireless Week reported.

“We have always expected this issue to be decided by the Supreme Court, and we look forward to participating in that appeal,” said AT&T General Counsel David McAtee in a statement after the court’s decision was announced.

AT&T, along with Verizon, and Alamo Broadband, a fixed wireless broadband service in the San Antonio, TX., were among the many companies and groups that filed a suit in 2015, challenging the rules. It was among several cases consolidated into originating cases filed by the trade association USTelecom. They are expected to appeal the court’s decision to the Supreme Court.

Internet access, when delivered over a cable, customers can rely on a stable amount of bandwidth but this isn’t true of wireless networks. You can have a clear connection one minute, and move out of range of one tower, then be switched to another that is overloaded with users causing your connection to slow to a snail’s pace. Some companies have been criticized for capping customer usage on certain applications, like Apple’s FaceTime because it could overwhelm the network. However, many argue that this in an important flexibility for wireless carriers to have so they can ensure bandwidth-heavy applications don’t overload the network, making it difficult for other customers to use their service.

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