Verizon doesn't care for the Federal Communication Commission's net neutrality rules and has now filed an appeal with the FCC to stop them from going into effect on November 22. The FCC finally made those rules official earlier in September by publishing them in the Federal Register. The new regulation state that Internet service providers, while allowing them to monitor and even slow down broadband speeds on their networks, cannot restrict access to web sites based on specific content.
Verizon's full statement, which is credited to its senior vice president and deputy general counsel Michael E. Glover, is as follows:
Verizon is fully committed to an open Internet. We are deeply concerned by the FCC's assertion of broad authority to impose potentially sweeping and unneeded regulations on broadband networks and services and on the Internet itself. We believe this assertion of authority is inconsistent with the statute and will create uncertainty for the communications industry, innovators, investors and consumers
Verizon has already tried once before to stop the net neutrality rules from going into effect earlier this year but a judge stopped that lawsuit. It said said that since the FCC's rules had not been published yet, Verizon could not yet file a claim to stop them. Meanwhile another activist group, the Free Press, has already filed its own lawsuit against the new regulations. They claim the FCC's rules are too weak, especially against wireless providers which the Free Press claims are exempt from most of the FCC's rules.
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