Telecoms giant uses a faux typewriter and morse code to issue statement expressing frustration at what it calls ‘antiquated’ internet regulations

Verizon took to morse code and a faux-typewriter to express its frustration over new rules to open up the internet on Thursday, as Republicans and big cable lobbyists lined up to lambast net neutrality protections as unworkable, unfair and unconstitutional.



Verizon issued its coded statement after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to impose tough new laws on broadband companies under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, an act from “the era of the steam locomotive and the telegraph”, Verizon dashed and dotted.

The FCC was forced to rewrite its old rules after Verizon successfully challenged the regulator’s authority in court last year. Now that the new rules have arrived, new challenges – of the legal, political and creative public-relations variety – have already begun.

In a statement, also released in text form, albeit in typewriter font, Michael Glover, Verizon’s senior vice-president, public policy and government affairs, said: “Today’s decision by the FCC to encumber broadband internet services with badly antiquated regulations is a radical step that presages a time of uncertainty for consumers, innovators and investors.”

His concerns were echoed by the US cable industry’s largest lobbying group, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. The NCTA said the new broadband rules would hurt “everyday broadband users” by raising costs and reducing investment.

Michael Powell, president of the NCTA – and a former FCC chairman – told Fox News that the current chairman, Tom Wheeler, had been pressed into introducing the rules by “unprecedented” pressure from Barack Obama.

Under the new rules, internet providers will be blocked from creating “fast lanes” that could give a competitive advantage to certain services. Nor will they be allowed to slow traffic for commercial reasons. The FCC will also have the power to intervene if it feels internet providers have invented a new way to challenge net neutrality – the principle that all information and services should get equal treatment online.

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The FCC’s two Republican commissioners voted against the broadband proposals and have filed objections that will delay the release of the regulatory body’s 300-plus-page report. Wheeler said the report would be issued soon. Once it is filed, internet service providers are expected to sue. Republicans in Congress are also making moves to have the orders thrown out.

Matt Wood, policy director at the advocacy group Free Press, said the new rules should be easier for the FCC to defend in court. “That’s the difference between these rules and the last ones, frankly: there is a very good chance they will stand up in court.”

Opponents disagree. “Today’s FCC votes resolve nothing,” said Berin Szoka, president of the libertarian think tank TechFreedom. “The FCC is bound to lose in court on much or all of its plan to remake broadband into a heavily regulated service – or, even better, a government-run monopoly.

“Unfortunately,” Szoka continued, “neither chairman Wheeler nor President Obama seems to care two figs about the legal details, which will be fought over well into the next administration.”