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Technology Stocks : COM21 (CMTO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Laubach who wrote (2185)	6/22/2000 10:59:00 PM
From: zbyslaw owczarczyk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2347

AT&T Wins Round on Net-Cable Access By WILLIAM McCALL, AP Business Writer PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - AT&T Corp. (NYSE:AWE - news) won a federal appeals court ruling Thursday that stripped cities of their control over the nation's largest cable company but may ultimately force it to open its cable TV network to Internet service providers across the nation. ``We may have lost the battle but we won the war,'' said Portland city Commissioner Erik Sten. AT&T sued the city in December 1998 after Portland commissioners approved an ordinance requiring open access to the AtHome cable TV network that AT&T acquired through its purchase of Tele-Communications Inc.. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that AT&T's cable Internet system ``is providing a telecommunications service'' subject to federal control, not a cable TV service regulated by a city or other local authority. Groups supporting open access, including rival phone company GTE, hailed the decision as a landmark ruling that forces access despite a hands-off regulatory approach by the Federal Communications Commission. ``The difference is subtle but important,'' said John Raposa, vice president and general counsel for GTE. ``This decision and the finding that cable modem service is a telecommunications service means there are statutory and regulatory requirements that are immediately imposed. Those rules apply now.'' AT&T officials, however, said they interpreted the decision as a very narrow issue of local vs. federal control. ``We won this case,'' said AT&T general counsel Jim Cicconi. ``The local franchise authority was decisively removed.'' Cicconi said the ruling freed AT&T and other cable companies to ``get on with investments that will bring advanced services to millions of Americans.'' Sten said the city has not decided whether to appeal, but he appeared to be leaning toward letting the decision stand because he considered FCC control of access to be the city's original goal. FCC officials said Thursday the agency has made it clear it wants the market to decide who gets access to cable systems but it will hold AT&T and other cable companies to their promises to ensure competition. ExciteAtHome, formed when At Home and Internet portal Excite Inc. merged, currently has exclusive rights until 2002 with AT&T - as well agreements with several other cable systems - to sell high-speed Internet access over their networks. Shares of ExciteAtHome surged 9 percent on the news, rising $1.937 to $20.875 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. AT&T shares also rose, jumping $1.063 to $36 on the New York Stock Exchange. The decision was praised by Peter Arnold, director of the ``Hands Off the Internet'' coalition, a lobbying group formed in part by AT&T. But Arnold said it won't have nearly the impact it would have had months ago. ``The air has gone out of the access movement,'' Arnold said. ``Since the beginning of the year, nearly a dozen state legislatures have considered access regulations, and not a single one has even passed it out of committee.'' Similar fears about accessibility were raised when online giant America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news) announced earlier this year that it was purchasing Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX - news), the nation's second-largest cable provider. However, officials at the two companies have said they will give their customers a choice of Internet service. A spokeswoman for AOL, which initially was one of the most ardent lobbyists against AT&T in this debate but has since backed off, praised the decision, saying the matter should be left to the industry. ``The debate about open access regulation has been overtaken by the tremendous progress in the marketplace, with AT&T and AOL and Time Warner all committed to providing open access and choice for consumers,'' said Kathy McKiernan. U.S. District Judge Owen Panner ruled in June 1999 that the city and county did have the authority to pass the ordinance. In its appeal, AT&T argued that it should be able to control Internet access to the cable TV network it purchased and that the city and surrounding Multnomah County have no right to make it do otherwise. Local officials countered that they were simply protecting the city from a monopoly when they voted to force AT&T to open up network access to competitors. But the 9th Circuit disagreed, saying that AT&T is a telecommunications network and regulated solely by the FCC. The case is AT&T vs. City of Portland. -