MetroPCS Withdraws Legal Challenge to FCC Net Neutrality Rules
T-Mobile voluntary withdrew Friday its appeal of the FCC’s 2010 net neutrality rules, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Verizon’s challenge continues. T-Mobile recently wrapped up its buy of MetroPCS, which had filed a separate challenge in 2011. The two cases had been joined before the D.C. Circuit.
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MetroPCS filed a motion for voluntary dismissal at the court in case 11-1404. “This motion for voluntary dismissal applies to the claims of MetroPCS only, and to case no. 11-1404 only,” the motion said. “This dismissal has no effect on the otherwise pending appeals or petitions of parties other than MetroPCS.” Counsel for the FCC and the U.S. “have consented to the grant of this motion” and “Appellant Verizon ... has been notified of this motion and has indicated that it will interpose no objection,” the filing said (http://bit.ly/14xWaPC).
"Our action today is consistent with the position on the FCC’s rules that T-Mobile USA took prior to our combination with MetroPCS,” a T-Mobile spokesman said Friday
The announcement came on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s last day in office. “The FCC’s widely supported open Internet framework has contributed to healthy growth in innovation and investment across the U.S. broadband economy,” Genachowski said in response. “Since 2010, our strong and balanced rules have been protecting entrepreneurs and consumers, and have increased certainty and predictability for investors in Internet services as well as networks. The ongoing litigation -- now pursued by a single company -- only serves to reduce that certainty and predictability."
At a recent FCBA forum, Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld focused his remarks on what T-Mobile would do now that the merger is complete (CD May 6 p7) . “The rules are working,” said PK President Gigi Sohn in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/10yYHc8). “While they're not perfect, they reassure Internet companies that they will be able to reach users, they give ISPs a framework under which they can manage their networks, and they provide a mechanism for working out disputes. It’s one thing to disagree with the specifics of an FCC policy. But it’s quite another thing to challenge the ability of the FCC to act at all. Yet the ongoing challenge to the FCC’s Open Internet rules are just that: an attempt to take away the FCC’s ability to protect consumers and promote competition.”