FCC chairman: Net rules will withstand court challenge

After running the gauntlet of Congressional hearings over the last two weeks, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler remains confident that the net neutrality rules the agency passed last month will survive upcoming challenges in court.

He made the prediction Friday speaking at the Ohio State University. Moritz College of Law as part of a "Future of Internet Regulation."

The open Internet, or net neutrality, rules give the Federal Communications Commission authority to prevent Internet service providers from blocking or throttling content users want to access and from seeking payments in exchange for faster delivery. a practice called "paid prioritization."

Last year, the federal court tossed out the FCC's previous open Internet rules with the argument that "you're trying to impose common carrier-like regulation without stepping up and saying, 'these are common carriers'," Wheeler said. "We have addressed that issue ... That gives me great confidence going forward that we will prevail."

USTelecom and Alamo Broadband filed separate suits last week in federal court asking that the rules be set aside because the agency acted beyond its authority.

He went on to say that "the big winners will be America's consumers and innovators and our economy as a whole," according to a text of the speech made available by the FCC. "We will finally have strong, enforceable rules that assure that Internet remains open now, and into the future."

Wheeler appeared before five different Congressional hearings over the past two weeks. At times questioning -- or criticism -- of the FCC chief got heated. "You are playing god with the Internet" said Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. "That's not your job."

Another committee member Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., expressed concern that Republicans were turning the rules "into another wedge issue to attack the president."

Before that hearing, Wheeler had appeared at three other House hearings and a Senate Commerce oversight hearing in the previous two weeks. He referenced the experience in his speech, thanking officials for asking him to appear there. "It's great to be here, and I'm not just saying that because I spent five of the previous eight weekdays testifying before Congress," Wheeler said.

He told the crowd that "the Commission's Open Internet Order rests on a basic choice – whether those who build the networks should make the rules by themselves or whether there should be a basic set of rules and a referee on the field to throw the flag if they are violated."

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