FCC's Net Neutrality Goes On Trial

The strongest U.S. Internet regulations ever written will face their day in court on Friday, according to The Hill.

Internet service providers like AT&T are hoping to have the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit strike down the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality regulations, just as it did to a pair of prior iterations of the rules.

The FCC has touted the rules as a win for consumers, contending they will prevent Internet service providers from blocking, slowing or charging high prices for access to fast lanes for any piece of Internet traffic.

Internet companies like Netflix, Twitter and Etsy helped push for the increased authority, in which the FCC reclassified Internet service as a telecommunications service, rather than its previous designation as a less-regulated information service.

Reclassification brought with it common carrier regulations, which the FCC tailored to apply to the Internet. However, critics equate the rules with burdensome utility-style regulations.

Companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, who own the cables that transfer Internet traffic to and from customers’ homes, have blasted the FCC for subjecting a dynamic service like the Internet to regulations that were originally designed to regulate monopoly telephone companies.

Today's oral arguments come at a time when net neutrality advocates are stoking their base ahead of a government spending debate. However unlikely, advocates have increasingly warned about a net neutrality rider slipping into the spending bill, and have encouraged supporters to inundate lawmakers' offices with calls.

The crux of the arguments will focus on whether Congress left it to the FCC to determine the classification of Internet service and whether the FCC’s apparent reversal is justified by the facts on the ground.