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04:10 PM ET 04/13/99
Lawmakers want study of cable Internet services
By Aaron Pressman
WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - Faced with a red-hot
controversy over cable industry plans to offer exclusive
high-speed Interarket.
"This is a crucial issue of the future of this nation,"
John McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said at
a hearing on the subject.
The Arizona Republican said he would soon introduce
legislation with bipartisan backing m Department's
National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
But McCain rejected calls from some Internet service
providers and America Online Inc. for more immediate
legislation to stop the exclusive cable services.
"To get this information from the NTIA and the FCC and
their recommendations is very important," McCain told reporters
after the hearing when asked about legislation sought by the
Internet companies.
The FCC in February decided not to conduct a formal study
of cable broadband services but said it would continue to
monitor the evolving marketplace.
McCain said the study would also cover the extent to which
high-speed services were being made available in rural and low
income areas.
Cable operators have begun offering high-speed Internet
access to consumers at speeds 25 or more times faster than
access using conventional telephone modems.
But unlike customers using phone lines for Internet access,
cable Internet customers must also buy Internet services like
e-mail and Web page hosting from a service provider like AtHome
Corp. that is owned by the cable companies.
Customer connecting at high or low speed over phone lines
can choose from among thousands of competing Internet service
providers without paying for the telephone company's Internet
service provider.
Customers using either cable or telephone access can view
any Web site or other Internet content once connected.
AOL chairman Steve Case warned that exclusive high-speed
cable deals would undermine the growth and openness of today's
Internet.
"I oppose regulation of the Internet but the broadband
infrastructures on which the Internet rests --whether cable,
telephone or other -- must be open," Case said at the hearing.
But Cox Communications Inc. president James Robbins
said his industry needed a free hand to run their Internet
services and attract investment capital to pay for billions of
dollars of upgrades to cable wires required for Internet
connectivity.
"Government regulation will impede its progress, not help
its progress," Robbins said at the hearing.
Senators attending the hearing struggled to follow some the
more technical and arcane aspects of the debate.
Georgia Democrat Max Cleland said he was left feeling
"enlightened and I'm also intrigued and I'm confused and
bewildered."
Also testifying at the hearing were officials from local
phone carrier US West , business Internet service
provider PSINet Inc. and consumer Internet service
provider MindSpring Enterprises Inc.
((Aaron Pressman, Washington newsroom, 202-898-8312))
This looks very crucial to me. Any comments? Anyone? |
