AT&T will sue FCC if it pushes forward with Net Neutrality proposal

According to a CNBC report, bigwig US wireless carrier AT&T has threatened to take legal action against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) if the agency goes ahead with its decision to reclassify Internet service as a as a utility service under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act.

With the FCC pushing forward with its plans in the direction of advancing Net Neutrality, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson recently told CNBC that “there will be litigation” if the agency, apparently under President Obama’s influence, “moved from pursuing a free and open Internet to regulating the Internet end to end.”

Stephenson also said that since there are no indications thus far that the FCC will make any change in its current proposal of re-classifying the Internet as a Title II service, an AT&T lawsuit against the agency is “quite certain.”

Stephenson said that the possible litigation against the FCC will likely be a class-action lawsuit which AT&T will file together with other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that will be unfavorably affected by the FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s recent proposal to re-categorize broadband Internet as a telecom service instead of an information service.

Via the lawsuit, ISPs will probably seek a delay in the implementation of the proposed Net Neutrality regulations which the FCC is scheduled to vote on later this month.