VoIP firm files first net neutrality complaint with FCC after being accused of theft of service

VoIP provider L2Networks has filed what it claims is the first formal net neutrality complaint since the FCC’s new set of rules went into effect last year. It was filed earlier this week against the Georgia-based Albany Water Gas & Light Commission, and was made in response to a criminal complaint. According to L2, Albany’s director of telecommunications Ronald Skates has alleged theft of service, claiming that his company should be compensated for L2’s use of its fiber-optic network to provide a VoIP service — L2 believes that this interference violates the net neutrality rules. Meanwhile, L2 CEO Kraig Beahn told PC World that the legal complaint was made due to just one customer who uses the VoIP service on Albany’s broadband network.

In a statement, L2 explained that the complaint “has the potential to immediately create an irreversible ripple effect along with the creation of various legal challenges across nearly every national content and application provider like Netflix, Vonage, Packet8, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and other entities that provide application based services across ‘the internet.’” A spokesperson for the company explained that FCC order 10-201 “was designed specifically to prevent these types of activities” and the company is seeking “emergency action” from the commission to intervene and investigate the situation.