Interesting article on new members to the openNet coalition!
NEWSBYTES® Top Story
Open Access Members Double Following AT&T Cable Loss
14 Jul 1999, 4:48 PM CST
By Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes.
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A.,
The OpenNET Coalition, dedicated to forcing cable companies to open their networks to competing Internet service providers, announced that since the Portland/Multnomah County, Ore., local decision against AT&T Corp., its membership has doubled.
It's now been five weeks since the relatively puny Portland and Multnomah County told AT&T that it needed to open up its cable network to other ISPs as a condition for completing its merger with the local franchises of Tele-Communications Inc. It's also been one day since Broward County, Fla., ruled that open access is the only way to go as well.
AT&T is challenging both counts, saying that the FCC maintains the ultimate jurisdiction on cable regulations, and that it should not have to make its hard-earned and revenue-munching cable infrastructure available for free.
The OpenNET Coalition was formed by companies that want to get a piece of the broadband data market through cable delivery, but don't have the ability to do so because they have not bought into the cable pie.
America Online Inc., [NYSE:AOL] and incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) which are jealous of the relatively unregulated atmosphere surrounding cable, also have joined OpenNET to lobby for open access.
ILECs are annoyed because they must meet rigorous Telecommunications Act requirements to break into the long distance market, and also because they want to provide their own high-speed DSL services, but cannot do that on a long distance basis until they make the FCC happy by opening their markets.
OpenNET, which chiefly represents these two sometimes diverging interests, now also has seized several more converts to its cause, including popular online service Juno and computer maker Gateway 2000 Inc.
OpenNET Director Greg Simon has said that he does not favor over-regulation of the cable industry, rather he would prefer that other companies that experience difficulty in making their own high-speed Internet offerings receive enough relief from their own regulations.
There are five bills on Capitol Hill at this time that attempt to solve this problem. It is unclear how many might actually get anywhere in the 106th Congress.
Other new members of the coalition, which specializes in feeding its point of view of the open access fight to the at-large public, include ACD.net, Applied Internet Solutions Inc., Brandywine Net, Business Research, Cape.Com Inc., Christian Living Network, CyberLink Inc., Eagle Net, Internet Information Service Inc., Internet Wisconsin, Marlowe & Associates, Netlink Communications, StarQuest Internet Services, TwinCities Internet and Xaranda Internet Inc.
Other members include charter members AOL, Cable & Wireless USA Inc., GTE Corp., MCI-WorldCom Inc., MindSpring Enterprises Inc., Prodigy Communications Corp. and US West; and early members Bertelsmann AG, Caribbean Internet Services Group, FlashNet Communications, Florida Internet Service Providers Association and Verio Inc.
Reported by Newsbytes.com, newsbytes.com .
16:48 CST
(19990714/WIRES ONLINE, LEGAL, BUSINESS, TELECOM/CABLEISP/PHOTO)
Copyright (c) Post-Newsweek Business Information, Inc. All rights reserved.
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