AT&T may ask Supreme Court to strip FTC of authority to police net neutrality

[RV_]

Now that the net neutrality rules were handed to the FTC by the FCC AT&T is trying to become unregulated. If you think they are hard to deal with now, better write your congress critters and tell them to make sure the foxes are never in charge of the hen-house.

Excerpt:

" If things play out in AT&T's favor, phone companies providing broadband or wireless internet services would be immune from government oversight.

AT&T may ask the US Supreme Court to end a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission over the carrier's data throttling policies for unlimited plans.

In 2014, the FTC sued AT&T in the US District Court of Northern California, accusing the company of promising unlimited data service to customers and then slowing that service down to rates that were barely usable. The case hasn't yet gone to trial since AT&T is arguing that the FTC has no authority over any of AT&T's businesses.

The US Appeals court in Northern California rejected that argument in February and said the case could proceed. AT&T indicated in a status report submitted to the appeals court last week that it may petition the Supreme Court to stop the case.

The judges on the federal appeals court disagreed and said the FTC can fill in oversight gaps when certain services, like broadband, aren't regulated by the FCC.

This ruling is crucial because FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's biggest argument for repealing the net neutrality rules was that the internet should be policed by the FTC and not the FCC. If AT&T were to appeal to the Supreme Court and if the court were to take the case and rule in AT&T's favor, it would mean that phone companies providing broadband or wireless internet services would be immune from government oversight. By contrast, cable companies, which do not operate traditional phone networks regulated by the FCC, would still be under the authority of the FTC.

All of this is still a long ways off. Even if AT&T were to file a petition with the Supreme Court, it's unlikely the court would take the case since it receives thousands of petitions per year, but only takes 80 cases per term."

Much more with hot links to related info in the full article on CNET here:

https://www.cnet.com/news/at-t-may-ask-supreme-court-for-strip-ftc-of-authority-to-police-net-neutrality/?ftag=CAD1acfa04&bhid=20640562413884385817807471581031