Nguyen is a recent college graduate living in Santa Clara, California. And for much of 2015, he spent his time digging through years of Verizon’s public statements and actions, assembling more than 300 citations into a 112-page document that could well have been his master’s thesis. (In fact, he studied computer science.) The document catalogs a dozen questionable actions Verizon has taken since 2012.
The complaint kicked off a back-and-forth process of objections, evidence discovery, and failed mediation to reach a resolution. Along the way, there have been some hilariously petty digressions, which Nguyen, untrained in the law, has handled patiently. At one point, Verizon objected to his definition of “Verizon” and proposed its own definition.
Though Nguyen has been arguing with Verizon for over a year at this point, his complaint has gone largely unnoticed.
In the proposal, the FCC questions whether open internet rules are even needed since only a single complaint has been filed under them. “Does the lack of formal complaints indicate that dedicated, formal enforcement procedures are unwarranted?” the proposal asks.
