Four major trade associations representing broadband providers today asked for an immediate halt to the Federal Communications Commission decision to reclassify the providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act.

One petition for a stay came from two cable groups, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and the American Cable Association (ACA). Another petition came from the CTIA Wireless Association on behalf of mobile carriers and USTelecom on behalf of telcos including AT&T and Verizon. AT&T and CenturyLink also signed on to the CTIA/USTelecom petition.

The petitions were filed with the FCC, which is unlikely to approve them, but the providers are required to petition the FCC before they can ask for a stay in court. Broadband providers have already sued to overturn the rules, but a stay would take them off the books pending resolution of the court case. USTelecom asked the FCC to act by May 8 "to allow adequate time for a judicial stay determination, if necessary." The groups can file for a stay in court if the FCC denies the petition or does not act on it.

The FCC declined comment today, but Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has previously said he thinks Internet providers will have a tough time gaining a stay.

The broadband providers are trying to make their request more palatable by asking only for a partial stay while leaving in place net neutrality rules that forbid blocking or discrimination against traffic. However, the FCC had to reclassify the providers in order to impose those rules because of a ruling on a previous lawsuit filed by Verizon.

One reason the providers fear common carrier status is that it will make it more difficult to charge network operators and content providers for direct connections to their networks. Just today, Verizon agreed to provide free peering to Cogent rather than risk a complaint to the FCC.

"[T]he order claims FCC control over peering agreements involving broadband Internet access providers, inserting the FCC into Internet peering for the first time," USTelecom said in its announcement. "This claim of control raises concerns that this area of the Internet would be subject to governmental delays and second guessing, harming investment and innovation. Since the order was adopted, some companies have already threatened to initiate FCC enforcement actions to achieve peering arrangements favorable to them, no matter what the balance of traffic is between providers. In the past, agreements were negotiated party-to-party without any government involvement."

The common carrier reclassification, which is scheduled to take effect June 12, would also let home Internet customers complain about unjust and unreasonable charges. Broadband providers oppose this as well.