We knew these lawsuits were coming. USTelecom, the trade group for broadband providers, has filed a rather peculiar pre-emptive lawsuit against the FCC's new Open Internet rules, arguing that while USTelecom supports net neutrality, it doesn't support the rules the FCC laid down to protect it.
The specific argument is against Title II, utility-style regulation, but the FCC was forced into that when a court struck down its earlier, lighter set of rules in 2014. The real issue here is that the broadband industry, like everyone, would prefer to be self-policing. I'd also prefer to be self-policing. Wouldn't you? Then you could decide what's a crime for yourself, and decide whether you'd ever be punished.
(There's an interesting tension on USTelecom's website about this. Take a look at the infographic on this page. It compares its investment in broadband to various government projects, not to other private industries. If it really didn't see itself as a utility, shouldn't it be comparing itself to, say, the PC and cellular industries?)
Now, utilities don't have to be monopolies. They could be a vibrant free market of alternatives, which self-regulate through competition. And if we had that kind of market in broadband, we probably wouldn't be having these arguments. But 30 percent of Americans only have one choice for uncapped broadband over 10Mbps—something the broadband providers refuse to acknowledge.
Not only do they refuse to acknowledge that America's broadband market isn't perfect and the best in the world, they refuse to acknowledge that Americans don't have competitive choices for broadband. They refuse to acknowledge that a court already struck down the lovely "light-touch" FCC regime they are praising, with the court specifically arguing that the FCC needed to take a "common carrier" approach, and they refuse to acknowledge that Congress is so dysfunctional that its chances of passing an overhaul of the Communications Act are absolutely zero.
The broadband providers are deeply disconnected from the real world. That doesn't mean they don't think they can win; much the contrary. Several times over the past few years we've found large telecom firms blundering up to regulators, assuming the regulators would just rubber-stamp their world-domination plans, and being absolutely shocked when millions of Americans come out against them.
Maybe we can't do anything about income inequality in this country, but we're doing a decent job complaining about our Internet service. (And at least we aren't in Canada.)
What We Need Now: Solutions
The broadband industry would be well-served if it started talking about solutions rather than ignoring its problems.
I get periodic email blasts from right-wing telecom think tanks, and while I disagree with most of what they say, at least they have some proposed solutions. The problem for the established telecom firms is, the right-wing solutions involve competition. They involve cutting municipal regulations and creating "dig once" conduits so it's much easier for competitive carriers to lay down fiber. A more radical free-market solution would involve opening up a large swathe of unlicensed wireless spectrum for point-to-point wireless ISPs and giving every property owner a right to construct a tower on his or her land, but ... we can dream.
Those right-wing solutions would frustrate the broadband mafia as much as the left-wing solutions do. Because ultimately, what USTelecom wants is the status quo. It likes its profits; it likes its cozy, not-so-competitive landscape. So it doesn't see a problem that needs solutions. And as long as that continues, let's hope its lawsuit gets laughed out of court.