FCC loses ruling on Net neutrality

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

A federal court threw the future of Internet regulations and U.S. broadband expansion plans into doubt Tuesday with a far-reaching decision that went against the Federal Communications Commission.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the FCC lacks authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks. That was a big victory for Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable company, which had challenged the FCC’s authority to impose such “network neutrality” obligations on broadband providers.

The unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel marks a serious setback for the FCC, which is trying to adopt official Net-neutrality regulations. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski argues such rules are needed to prevent phone and cable companies from using their control over Internet access to favor some kinds of online content and services over others.

The case centers on Comcast’s actions in 2007 when it interfered with file-sharing service BitTorrent, which allows users to swap big files such as movies over the Internet. But public-interest groups stressed that the ramifications of the ruling are much broader because it undercuts the FCC’s ability to prevent broadband providers from becoming gatekeepers for many kinds of online services.

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