AOL's Case, cable exec to face off at hearing
My 2 cents: Well Boo F'ing Hoo for AOL! But I guess Case is getting cocky and feeling all righteous after getting big brother to help him beat up on Microsoft. What a pansy! JT
April 9, 1999 04:00 PM
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - America Online chairman Steve Case will go to Capitol Hill next week to press his argument that cable television operators are unfairly keeping the world's largest online service from competing in the merging high-speed Internet world.
Lawmakers will hear the opposite view from Cox Communications Inc. COX president James Robbins, according to a list of witnesses announced on Friday for an April 13 Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
The hearing comes as cable companies are rapidly rolling out high-speed Internet access allowing subscribers to surf the World Wide Web at speeds 25 or more times faster than using ordinary modems.
But unlike telephone companies offering Internet access, cable companies are permitted to require their customers to buy both access and Internet services, like e-mail and Web page hosting, from them.
Case wants Congress to change that policy, allowing AOL to sign up customers who have super-fast cable access without making the customers also buy a cable Internet service provider like AtHome Corp. ATHM
Robbins and other cable executives argue the government should not be dictating how they offer Internet services. The cable industry says it will use revenues from Internet services to lower the price charged for Internet access.
The remaining three witnesses on the panel all will side with with Case and argue for open access to cable Internet services.
They are US West USW president Solomon Trujillo, MindSpring Enterprises Inc. MSPG chief executive Charlie Brewer and PSINet Inc. PSIX president William Schrader.
Earlier on Friday, a coalition of consumer and communications advocacy groups that agree with AOL sent the members of the Commerce Committee a letter outlining their concerns. The groups are expected to testify on the issue at a future hearing.
((Aaron Pressman, Washington newsroom, 202-898-8312)) REUTERS |
