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To: ANANT who wrote (40626)	1/5/2001 8:03:13 AM
From: ANANT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

FCC May Ask More of AOL, Time Warner Before Merger Dow Jones Newswires Jan 05,2001 WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission staff asked an association of small Internet-service providers to help draft a last-minute tougher "open-access" condition to America Online Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Inc., the ISP group said. While the FCC is expected to approve the companies' combination soon, the move toward a tougher stipulation indicates further delay is still possible. AOL and Time Warner, which announced the deal last January, had hoped to complete the buyout by Dec. 31. The new provision would require access for one local and one regional ISP to every Time Warner cable system, which would give small and regional ISPs more leverage, said Stephen Heins of WI-ISP, an association of 61 ISPs in Wisconsin. Time Warner wouldn't comment on the matter. The group's task is to define what constitutes a local, a regional or a national ISP; the FCC would use those definitions in drafting the condition. The association expects to submit its proposal Friday. The FCC also asked the group to define what constitutes business-class Internet service delivered via cable lines. The agency could use such a definition in a condition requiring open access for business users in rural areas. That would expand an open-access requirement the Federal Trade Commission imposed on the deal that covered only residential services. The FCC wouldn't comment. But late last month, its staff took documents that open-access advocates submitted in last year's review of the merger between AT&T Corp. and cable provider MediaOne Group, and placed them in the AOL-Time Warner docket. Those documents could become part of the record the FCC can draw on to justify its ruling on the merger. An industry official close to the AOL-Time Warner review said some FCC commissioners aren't comfortable with simply "rubber-stamping'' the FTC's December approval, and want to offer provisions of their own. The FCC is the final regulatory hurdle for the deal. Open access requires a cable operator that provides Internet service using an affiliated ISP to sell unaffiliated ISPs access to its system. While cable companies say such access should turn on market-based decisions, ISPs want government help getting access, which they say will be crucial to compete as Internet users increasingly turn to broadband transmission. Small ISPs feared they wouldn't be protected by the FTC's open-access requirement. Mr. Heins of WI-ISP said FCC staff members asked his group to help draft a condition that could take the FTC provision a step further.