DWT ADVISORY: D.C. Circuit Reverses FCC Regulation of Broadband Network Management Practices

On April 6, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) exceeded its authority when it sought to regulate Comcast’s network management practices for its high-speed Internet access service. The court vacated the FCC’s Aug. 1, 2008, ruling that Comcast’s former practice of using various techniques to moderate the amount of bandwidth used by peer-to-peer services such as BitTorrent violated the FCC’s 2005 “Internet Policy Statement.” (Continue reading.)

Immediately following the court's decision, the FCC extended its reply comment deadline in its Open Internet Proceeding (i.e., Net Neutrality) to April 26, 2010. The original date for reply comments was April 8.

The D.C. Circuit's opinion (Comcast Corp. v. Federal Communications Commission, No. 08-1291 (D.C. Cir. April 6, 2010)) is available here.