Could the FCC actually reclassify ISP's as Title II?

So I was reading an article about the FCC's new proposal. And in that article, there was a part that struck me as odd.

Verizon warned that "any effort to reclassify broadband Internet access service would have significant legal vulnerabilities." Supporters of the Title II route to resolve the current debate have assumed that the FCC has the broad authority simply to declare broadband Internet access service to be a common carrier telecommunications service, it added.

Is this true? Could the FCC actually just snap their fingers and make ISP's Title II? According to this article, no.

Full article here: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2842013/fccs-wheeler-mulls-hybrid-approach-to-net-neutrality.html

They were title II and essentially snapped their fingers to make them title I in the first place.

The FCC has the power of forbearance. This means they can classify them very stringently then say they won't go after them for x y and z. But under title I the FCC has no power to make arbitrary new rules they must follow.

Title II is about allowing them not to follow every single rule as long as they are well behaved. 

 

 

So, pretty much the article is full of crap?

Well, look, think about it like this. Title I and Title II are legal frameworks that provide "tools" to the FCC to get these companies to do what they want. That's kind of the point of the FCC -- laws/congress move slowly, and Radio/Television was this 'hot new thing' and the FCC was created to deal with that. 

Think about the rule of law. Under the law the FCC cannot act arbitrarily. A policeman (theoretically) cannot come to your house and harass you for no good reason. If a policeman is harassing you, they have to have a reason under the law.

Under the law, these plainly wrong things these companies are doing is not technically illegal (allthough they're so egregious at this point you could maybe make a case for rico, sherman anti trust act, etc). Under Title II however, the FCC has full discretion to decide.

When the article says this:

 "light-touch" reclassification plan, that would not enforce the entirety of Title II regulations

They're talking about reclassifying them as title II but essentially promising not to harass them unless they do a, b, c, x, y and z. This is pretty effective because a, b, c, x, y and z may not be illegal under the law as it is now but there ARE more onerous provisions of title II like opening up your network to audits to determine just/reasonable pricing, etc which those companies are scared to death of (because their profit margin is so high you might say its usurious). 

Now, this I found funny:

"any effort to reclassify broadband Internet access service would have significant legal vulnerabilities."

The FCC already made some arbitrary rules, Comcast and Verizon both said screw you and it took 5+ years for those cases to get through the court system. At the end, the judge literally said to the FCC: "Look guys, we know you want to do this, and we agree this looks like the best thing to do.. but in order to do this, they would have to be reclassified as a title II communications company because, under title I, the FCC has no legal authority in these types of matters. However, the FCC has sole power/discretion to classify companies as Title I vs Title II"

And indeed, in the case of verizon, they were recently (10 years ago or so) re-classifed from title II to title I to "better compete" with cable companies.

Instead we have these companies acting totally sociopathically and setting US digital infrastructure back 10 years. 


 

 

Very good response, thanks for your time.

A video detailing all this or an article would be awesome for those who actually care about what's going on. 

good news for title 2 ?  http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/01/google-letter-fcc-title-ii/#continued