10 different ISP and broadband industry trade groups had already filed suit to stop the agency's net neutrality rules, and these groups and companies this week filed their opening legal briefs as the opening salvo in the legal assault. The joint brief (pdf) filed on behalf of AT&T, the CTIA, USTelecom, the NCTA and other broadband companies makes most of the same arguments against neutrality rules we've seen previously, such as claiming that having these consumer protections in place will somehow stifle investment in the broadband networks of tomorrow.
"America’s global mobile leadership is at risk under the FCC’s heavy-handed net neutrality rules on wireless broadband," the CTIA complained in a statement.
Similarly USTelecom, a group spearheaded by AT&T, argues that the FCC's "approach is both unlawful and unwise, abandoning a long-successful policy that has produced hundreds of billions of dollars in broadband infrastructure investment." USTelecom is urging Congress to pass net neutrality rules into law that are notably weaker than what the FCC has proposed.
Not surprisingly, consumer advocates aren't impressed with any of the arguments being made by ISPs.
"Today’s legal filings contain more of the same flimsy legal arguments broadband providers have been putting forth for more than a decade," consumer group Free Press said in a statement. "The public must have the right to connect and communicate free of unreasonable discrimination by broadband gatekeepers."
At this point it's unclear when the court skirmish will be settled, though the most likely time frame for a court ruling on which side of the legal argument will prevail would be later this year or early 2016.
