A group of 22 Democratic state Attorneys General from West Coast to East have filed a lawsuit Tuesday trying to prevent the FCC’s repeal of Title II Net Neutrality.
The suit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, argues that the vote last month along party lines by the Republican-controlled FCC was an “arbitrary and capricious” change to regulations enacted by Democrats in 2015.
Those rules were designed to ensure the uninhibited flow of online content. They prohibited AT&T Inc., Charter Communications Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and other broadband and wireless internet service providers from selling faster delivery of certain data, slowing speeds for specific video streams and other content, and blocking or otherwise discriminating against any legal online material.
An important thing to note is Verizon’s obvious complicity in pushing for this repeal. Ajit Pai has proudly declared himself a Verizon shill, while being suspected of corruption on multiple fronts: helping Sinclair expand its media empire and helping Verizon avoid paying a massive fine in an FCC fraud case, which ultimately ties back to Net Neutrality.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is under fire for letting Verizon get off easy by settling a high-profile over-billing investigation.
FCC chairman and former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai agreed to close the case with the carrier repaying $17 million to the government’s E-rate program that subsidizes Internet connections for schools and libraries. Though the FCC won’t publicly explain how the amount was calculated, it relates to excess payments Verizon received under the program in New York City schools thanks to a crooked consultant who was later imprisoned for fraud and theft. Verizon says it wasn’t aware of the fraud but concedes that it received some payments “in error.”
Pai himself defended the anti-internet moves by Verizon as
“an important measure that both enforces our rules and restores critical taxpayer dollars to the Universal Service Fund,”
with a caveat:
And in addition to the $17 million, Verizon also agreed to forgo rights it may have had to seek more than another $100 million in new reimbursements from the E-rate fund, Pai’s office noted.
Gee, that’s nice.
So, when you see Verizon claiming to ‘help bring the future to you,’ remember that they don’t want to bring it insomuch as they want to completely control it.
In June, Verizon told ZDNet that one of the "key" parts of 5G is interoperability, with the carrier working with Ericsson, Cisco, Samsung, Intel, LG, Nokia, and Qualcomm to roll out its pre-commercial 5G trial networks this year.
Save some for the little guy, yeah?
When you remember the disasterous 3-2 partyline vote on Net Neutrality, don’t just remember Ajit Pai’s smug face. Remember Verizon’s titanic shadow looming over the entire deal as well. Verizon should not be allowed to be so complicit in the manipulation of a public utility that they do not suffer blowback.
Read more on the lawsuit from AG Schneiderman’s office here.