Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bernard Levy who wrote (8339)	9/6/2000 5:04:14 PM
From: MikeM54321	Respond to of 12823

Bernard- Now here comes the FCC. So we have the FTC, FCC, and maybe the DOJ getting involved in the Time Warner/AOL deal. Kind of getting crowded. IMHO, if ATT has risked $100 billion on the cable plant(and look at the beating their stock is taking), then it's theirs. If a HFC overbuilder comes in and builds on top of T's plant, it's theirs. If an incumbent comes in and spends billions overlaying VDSL via an RT, then it's theirs, etc. I'm fairly certain this is where the FCC wants to take it, but in the meantime they have to do the politically correct thing. Which ironically, only slows the broadband rollouts down. -MikeM(From Florida) *********************************** U.S. FCC to Begin Review of Need for Cable Access Regulations** Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is expected next week to start an inquiry into whether cable television companies should be required to lease their high-speed Internet connections to rivals. Internet service providers and cable companies have been feuding for more than two years over access to the so-called broadband connections into the home. So far, the FCC has declined to regulate access to these high-speed connections, preferring to let companies resolve the disputes on their own. A federal appeals court ruling in June prompted the FCC to take another look at the need for a nationwide policy on opening access to the cable lines. Analysts and industry observers don't expect the agency to impose access requirements any time soon. ''The FCC believes it has studied the issue in some depth and made a series of policy decisions ultimately to leave the development of cable broadband to the market without a lot of government regulation or intervention,'' said Paul Glenchur, an analyst with Charles Schwab Corp.'s Washington Research Group. Cable companies including AT&T Corp. and Time Warner Inc. have made commitments to give rival Internet service providers access to their lines after exclusive arrangements with affiliated companies expire over the next few years. While any FCC review is likely to take several months before a final decision is reached, the Federal Trade Commission may impose a cable access requirement for Time Warner as a condition for approving its $145 billion takeover by America Online Inc. The FTC staff wants the company's access promises in a consent decree enforceable in court, people familiar with the discussions said. FCC staff said such a requirement by antitrust enforcers wouldn't conflict with the agency's hands-off approach because the FTC action would be aimed at AOL-Time Warner, which has raised a separate issue about a single company controlling content and distribution. ''The whole problem with (the FCC's) open access policy is it's not a policy -- they've never even raised questions officially in a notice of inquiry,'' said Scott Cleland, chief executive of the Precursor Group, an independent research group in Washington. ''Other jurisdictions and agencies are pulling up the slack'' because of the policy vacuum, he said. Some local governments had imposed access requirements when the FCC remained inactive. The cable industry and FCC argued that those governments lacked jurisdiction to set such rules. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in June agreed that the FCC had sole jurisdiction over Internet services over cable, striking down local rules. After the court ruled, the FCC announced plans to launch an official inquiry into the matter.