This is from last time around:
https://www.leagle.com/decision/infco20170501305
Interesting read.
"Whereas the FCC had classified DSL broadband as a telecommunications service,
the agency had instead elected to classify cable broadband as an "information
service," the other of the two classifications available to the agency under
the statute. See id. at 978, 125 S.Ct. 2688. Providers of an information
service, in contrast with telecommunications providers, are not considered to
be common carriers under the Act. As a result, providers of an information
service are subject to less extensive regulatory obligations and oversight than
are telecommunications providers."
The Supreme Court gave the FCC discretion to make that decision. It never made
sense to me why the two types of Internet service should have been different,
and it still doesn't now.
"Justice Scalia's dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Souter and Ginsburg,
went even further. According to Justice Scalia, the statute permitted only one
conclusion: cable broadband ISPs 'are subject to Title II regulation as common
carriers, like their chief competitors [e.g., DSL] who provide Internet access
through other technologies.' Id. at 1006, 125 S.Ct. 2688 (Scalia, J.,
dissenting). The agency, in Justice Scalia's view, had no discretion to
conclude otherwise."
Although it could in principle also result in DSL and cable broadband being
classified as information services. But,
"The upshot of Brand X with regard to the FCC's congressionally delegated
authority over broadband ISPs is unmistakable and straightforward. All nine
Justices recognized the agency's statutory authority to institute
'common-carrier regulation of all ISPs,' with some Justices even concluding
that the Act left the agency with no other choice. 545 U.S. at 1011, 125 S.Ct.
2688 (Scalia, J., dissenting)."
So much for the Chairman's claim that the FCC had no authority, in 2015.
Bert
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