Verizon appeals FCC's net neutrality rules

Verizon's gone to the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC today to officially take issue with the net neutrality policy that the FCC laid out in the waning moments of 2010, saying that it's "deeply concerned by the FCC's assertion of broad authority for sweeping new regulation of broadband networks and the Internet itself." The company's extremely brief press release on the matter doesn't detail where their issues lie, specifically, but they'd said back in December that they had concerns, so the move doesn't come as a terribly big surprise. If we had to guess, the no-blocking rules surrounding wireless networks are certainly high on that list of concerns -- Verizon and others have long said that wireless needs to be left largely out of the net neutrality debate -- but we won't know until we're able to dig into the court case. Follow the break for the press release.

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Verizon Files Appeal in Federal Court Regarding FCC Net Neutrality Order

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WASHINGTON – January 20, 2011 –
Verizon Communications on Thursday (Jan. 20) filed an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, challenging the Federal Communications Commission's Report and Order on rules dealing with the issue of net neutrality. The following statement should be attributed to Michael E. Glover, Verizon senior vice president and deputy general counsel:

"Verizon has long been committed to preserving an open Internet and meeting the needs of our customers. We have worked extensively with all players in the Internet and communications space to shape policies that ensure an open Internet and encourage investment, innovation and collaboration with content providers and others to meet the needs of consumers.

"Today's filing is the result of a careful review of the FCC's order. We are deeply concerned by the FCC's assertion of broad authority for sweeping new regulation of broadband networks and the Internet itself. We believe this assertion of authority goes well beyond any authority provided by Congress, and creates uncertainty for the communications industry, innovators, investors and consumers."