The FCC is likely to toss out these requests, but they should lead to a call to freeze the net neutrality rules (which kick in June 12th) until legal battles are over. Also, they might give a peek at the strategy the telcos will use when they're in trial. The carriers have launched broader legal attacks on net neutrality in the past, claiming that it violates numerous laws and even the Constitution, but this is more targeted. They're trying to undermine the rules based on the supposed burdens involved with the implementation, not the core principles that earned so much public support.

Whether or not this approach works isn't clear, and may depend on which court hears the telecoms' cases. The FCC wants them to go to a federal appeals court in Washington, DC that maintained the agency's power to regulate internet access even after rejecting earlier rules. The FCC no doubt wants a judiciary that enshrines its authority at the very moment that companies are trying to undermine it -- another court might not be so sympathetic.

[Image credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew]