USTelecom President Jonathan Spalter blogged Monday (March 26) that there is "no question" that his association "will aggressively challenge state or municipal attempts to fracture the federal regulatory structure that made all this progress possible."
The FCC included language in its order rolling back federal network neutrality rules preempting state attempts to reinstate then. Several states have imposed such network neutrality laws, or language on federal contracts, following the FCC's Dec. 14 vote.
Related: California Dems Inroduce Tough New Net Neutrality Law
The issue appeared headed for the courts, which USTelecom has confirmed will be the case.
Spalter invoked the Constitution and Bill of Rights and civil rights as embodying the same principles as equal protections of online experiences, rather than differing regimes depending on what state a Web surfer lives in.
"All Americans deserve equal rights online," he said. "Standing up for them means not merely saying no to state-level regulation, but hell no to the idea of dismantling what must be a united and connected future."
While he said best way to resolve the issue of equal Web protections was national legislation that clarified those and applied them to the edge as well as internet access providers, he said "nothing could be more counter to the collective cause [of encouraging broadband innovation and deployment] than everyone—no matter how well meaning—writing their own set of rules for how the global internet should operate in their neck of the woods."
