Verizon this week reiterated its opposition to the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules, arguing that they violate the First Amendment and are completely unnecessary, among other things.

Verizon this week reiterated its opposition to the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules, arguing that they violate the First Amendment and are completely unnecessary, among other things.

The rules "impose dramatic new restrictions on broadband Internet access services providers," Verizon wrote in a Monday filing, and seek to "control all aspects of broadband Internet access service."

Verizon in January 2011, but the case was in April on a technicality. FCC rules are not officialand therefore open to a legal challengeuntil they are published in the Federal Register. That did not happen , at which point , as did MetroPCS.

The debate over net neutrality at the FCC dates back at least five years, but the commission in Dec. 2010.

The basic idea behind net neutrality is that everyone should have equal access to the Web. Amazon should not be able to pay to have its website load faster than a mom-and-pop e-commerce site, for example. After Comcast was , however, the FCC decided to craft rules that would ban ISPs from discriminating based on content. It was OK to slow down your entire network during peak times, for example, but you couldn't block a particular site, like BitTorrent. The rules approved by the FCC give the commission the authority to step into disputes about how ISPs are managing their networks or initiate their own investigations if they think ISPs are violating its rules.

ISPs like Verizon and Comcast agreed to adhere to these principles, but argued that the FCC did not have the right to hand down rules regarding Internet regulation. If truly necessary, that was something Congress should handle, they said.

The FCC disagreed, and to make its case. Verizon said this week that the FCC's argument is simply a "hodgepodge of provisions" pulled from the Communications Act.

"None of these provisions remotely suggests that Congress ever intended to empower the agency with such vast authority over the Internet," Verizon said.

The net neutrality rules are a "systematic problem in search of a solution" that violate the First Amendment by stripping ISPs of "control over the transmission of speech on their networks," Verizon said.

Consumer group Free Press has also over its net neutrality rules, but it argued that they do not go far enough in respect to wireless companies. According to The Hill, the group has since dropped its suit.