Cable lobby ‘highly likely’ to sue over Internet rules

The head of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association said it is “highly likely” his organization will fight the proposed net neutrality rules in court. 

The trade group’s president, Michael Powell, expressed confidence that there will be serious legal arguments against the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to reclassify broadband Internet under regulations governing traditional telephones. 

{mosads}“Yeah I should say that I think our board hasn’t made that decision, but it is highly likely that we would,” Powell said in an interview for C-SPAN’s “The Communicators,” set to air this weekend. 

“I think that this shift is so dramatic — this industry has invested over $1.2 trillion over the course of the last decade on the assumption that that investment was going into a network that was regulated as a light-touch regulatory environment,” he added. “That shift to a completely different regulatory environment puts those investment-backed expectations at risk.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has proposed the strict authority in order to prevent Internet service providers like Comcast or Cox — represented by the trade group — from blocking or slowing any Internet traffic on their network. The rules are also meant to ban providers from negotiating priority access for content providers willing to pay. 

Powell said the new authority would lead to a “litigation circus” as a number of other providers have signaled their intention to sue over the rules as well.  

“It’s kind of a Jenga game — a house of cards. We’re told all these pieces are dependent on each other,” he said. 

He continued to call on Democrats to come to the table to negotiate a net neutrality bill through Congress, rather than having the FCC reclassify broadband. He said his group would be OK with changes to the GOP legislation floated last month. 

“My appeal to Democrats would be not that you have to swallow what these guys put at the table, but they put an offer on the table,” he said. “Come to the table and tell them what would have to change to make you support it. I think that’s what’s not happening yet and should happen as a matter of responsible government.”