03/20/2018

ACA Seeks to Ally With FCC in Net Neutrality Fight

The American Cable Association has officially joined the court challenge of the FCC's network neutrality rule rollback, filing a motion to intervene in the case with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The filing was announced the same day ACA is kicking off its annual D.C. Summit, where members will gather to strategize and press Washington policymakers on key issues, like network neutrality.

The Ninth Circuit was chosen in the lottery that the court system holds when appeals are filed in multiple circuits.

ACA is intervening on the side of the FCC, to "help defend the Federal Communications Commission's ruling that restored light-touch regulation to providers of high-quality broadband facilities and infrastructure to millions of users in rural America." An intervenor is a party with a demonstrable interest in the outcome, something ACA certainly has, representing hundreds of ISPs directly impacted by the FCC’s decision to move them out from under common carrier regulations.

ACA told the court it has contacted both sides and neither objects to its intervenor status.

ACA says its members "consistently" provide users with unrestricted access to lawful broadband content and that the Title II classification of ISPs under the 2015 Open Internet Order, which subjected them to common carrier regs, discouraged its smaller-ISP constituency from investing or innovating.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/aca-seeks-ally-fcc-net-neutrality-fight/172432