The FCC's new internet-openness rules, which passed just before Christmas, are already facing their second legal attack, as MetroPCS challenged them Monday in federal court.
MetroPCS, the fifth largest U.S. wireless carrier, has already been accused of violating the new rules, which largely prohibit wireless carriers from blocking websites or prohibiting customers from using VoIP services like Skype. The company, which specializes in pay-as-you-go plans, does both with its new 4G plans that block streaming video except for YouTube.
Verizon, the nation's largest wireless company, beat MetroPCS to the courtroom last week. Like MetroPCS, Verizon is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to hear the challenge, on the grounds that the December 2010 rules retroactively impose new conditions on spectrum the company had leased, and that the FCC overstepped its authority.
Public interest groups, including Free Press, reacted quickly to MetroPCS challenging rules they think are too lenient anyhow.
"Instead of responding to the public outcry over its walled-garden practices by offering open-internet access services, MetroPCS has chosen to follow the lead of Verizon Wireless and sue the FCC to strike down the commission’s weak, loophole-ridden rules," said Free Press policy counsel M. Chris Riley in an e-mailed statement.
"MetroPCS hopes that by helping to vacate the rules in court, it will be able to continue with its anticonsumer, anticompetitive practices of blocking popular applications like Skype and Netflix unless its subscribers pay a steep ransom."
Neither the FCC nor MetroPCS immediately responded to e-mails seeking comment.
The FCC's rules are not yet in effect, since they have not been published in the Federal Register. But the companies say that federal court rules seem to say the court challenges related to their licenses need to be filed with 30 days of the FCC's decision, regardless of whether they are in effect or not.
The suits were both filed in the same court that in 2010overturned similar rules put into place by the George W. Bush administration's FCC. In that case, the court ruled the FCC lacked authority to create open-internet rules after it controversially deregulated DSL and cable companies. The new FCC rules did not undo that change and remain legally vulnerable, according to telecom law experts.
Photo: Majiscup/Flickr
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