"FCC Kills Internet Service Provider's Bid For Access To Cable Lines"
Thread- Another indication the FCC's Kenard understands that free market competition is best. IMO, I have to really hand it to him, over the last year or so, he has really done the right thing in most all of the FCCs rulings.
I hadn't even realized the ISPs were trying to do an end-around the FCC's rulings about letting AT&T keep their cable plant to themselves(away from AOL). The basis of their argument is pretty interesting. They are laying claim to be a TV provider. Hence they want access to the cable pipes already in place.
So we got AOL off AT&T's back. And now maybe this is another step to keep other ISPs off their back. I hope so. That will be the only incentive for AT&T to invests BILLIONS($$) to upgrade to two-way HFC. -MikeM(From Florida)
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FCC Kills Internet Service Provider's Bid For Access To Cable Lines
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission has quashed an attempt by an Internet-service provider to force cable companies to lease broadband capacity to the ISP under a novel interpretation of a law intended to promote diverse TV programming.
The decision is part of a broader debate over "open access " to cable networks that may help determine which companies get access to fat pipelines that could provide consumers with superfast access to voice, video, data and other services.
FCC members voted 5-0 that Internet-access services offered by Internet Ventures Inc. of Washington state and its subsidiary, Internet On-Ramp Inc., aren't video programming as defined by a key federal law. That statute requires cable-TV companies to lease access to third-party programmers.
In its petition to the FCC, Internet Ventures had argued that Internet access should be considered a video service, bringing it under the law. The case was seen as an ingenious legal maneuver that would give Internet-service providers the same access to broadband cable systems as they have to the telephone network.
While the FCC has encouraged companies that own large cable networks, like AT&T Corp., to provide open access, it has said regulation forcing them to open up their systems would be premature.
Don Janke, president of Internet Ventures, expressed disappointment over the FCC decision, saying it will result in higher prices, fewer choices for consumers and restricted growth for the Internet.
A spokesperson for AT&T praised the ruling, calling Internet Venture's petition "just another baseless argument for government regulation of Internet access."
But telecommunications analyst Scott Cleland of the Schwab Washington Research Group said Internet Ventures had planned to offer 100 television-broadcast stations via streaming video, in addition to Internet access.
"This was a decision as to whether an ISP could compete against cable and offer an alternative video-programming package," Cleland said. "The FCC shut that down."
In its statement, the FCC said the law doesn't require cable operators to make capacity available for the range of services that Internet Ventures planned to offer and that the agency need only address the most basic threshold issue - whether Internet access is comparable to programming provided by a television-broadcast station. The FCC concluded it wasn't.
Currently, most Americans access the Internet at home through clunky analog telephone lines that are agonizingly slow because they were designed to carry voice rather than data. While fiber optics promises to clear this lonjam, the problem has been the prohibitive cost of wiring the "last mile" of broadband access to homes.
Many companies, including AT&T, are betting that they can cover this last mile by converting existing cable connections to homes. AT&T's recent binge of cable acquisitions and America Online Inc.'s (AOL) decision to merge with Time Warner Inc. (TWX) represent huge bets on this technology.
AOL was leading the fight for open access to cable-TV for Internet-service providers when it was a "have-not" in the cable business. It has appeared to back off, however, since announcing plans to to acquire Time Warner, with its vast cable networks.
Internet Ventures offers dial-up and high-speed Internet-access services to markets in the U.S. with populations of less than 500,000. It currently operates 14 local Internet-service providers in California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. |
