The Change Mariner

FCC seeks to overturn cable broadband ruling to force sharing of broadband networks

News.com:
The Federal Communications Commission filed a petition Thursday requesting a rehearing in a case that could bring new federal regulations to the cable broadband industry.

The agency submitted the 19-page document to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the hope that the court would grant a new hearing of its October ruling, which declared that the FCC was wrong to classify cable broadband services as "information services." Cable broadband actually has qualities of both information and "telecommunications" services, that ruling said.

The distinction is critical because the federal government can force telecommunications services to share their high-speed Internet lines with third parties, as dictated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Baby Bell phone companies, considered telecommunications services, are regulated this way.

However, cable companies are considered information services and are thus not federally required to share their broadband networks with anyone else.

In Thursday's filing, the FCC argued that it was correct in classifying cable as an information service, sticking to its long-held desire to keep regulation out of the cable industry. The FCC requested that the 9th Circuit grant an en banc hearing for the case, meaning that the court would overturn the original, three-judge ruling and take a fresh look at the case with an 11-judge panel.

The FCC had threatened to appeal the October ruling, but it never stated how it would do so. Its other alternative was to appeal through the U.S. Supreme Court.