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To: Jay Lowe who wrote (4830)	1/27/1999 8:59:00 PM
From: Boplicity	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

Jay and all, AOL Request for Cable Access to Be Denied By FCC, Officials Say Washington, Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Federal regulators won't require cable TV companies such as Tele-Communications Inc. to sell their new high-speed Internet hook-ups to competing Internet companies any time soon, according to two FCC officials familiar with the situation. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will take no action at a public meeting tomorrow on requests by America Online Inc. and other Internet companies that the agency impose such a requirement, the officials said. Instead, the agency will simply commit to monitoring cable's roll-out of their new high-speed Internet services. ''The FCC apparently thinks this isn't the appropriate forum to explore the concept of open access'' to cable companies' Internet hook-ups, said Scott Cleland, managing director of Legg Mason Inc.'s Precursor Group. Still, he said, the issue ''is not going away -- it's the beginning of a long process.'' The FCC is releasing a report to Congress tomorrow that's required by law on whether telecommunications networks capable of delivering voice, data and Internet traffic at high speeds are being deployed at a reasonable and timely manner. The agency will conclude that the service is still in its infancy, though early indications are that it's on target. Internet companies were hoping the FCC would use the report as a springboard for an inquiry into whether open access requirements should be imposed on cable companies. AOL had no immediate comment on the FCC's decision to hold off on the cable open-access issue. Cable TV companies are spending billions of dollars to upgrade their cable networks to offer customers Internet hook-ups that are up to 100 times faster than today's standard PC modem. They argue that the so-called open-access requirement would serve as a disincentive to invest. ''The FCC is showing good political judgment'' by not including the so-called open-access issue in the report, said Cleland. ''It's bad optics to use this forum to pursue that issue because the thrust of the report is about rapid deployment of technology.'' America Online, the No. 1 U.S. Internet service provider, and other Internet service providers raised the open-access issue earlier in comments filed for the FCC's review of AT&T's proposed $58 billion purchase of TCI, the second-largest U.S. cable company. AOL wants the FCC to require open access as a condition of approving the transaction. AT&T and TCI have said they'd let AOL and other Internet service providers sell their high-speed service as a bundled package with TCI's affiliated online service -- At Home Corp. AOL, however, wants to be able to buy the high-speed connections without the online content offered by At Home. Meanwhile, AT&T is considering selling its Internet access business, which includes the WorldNet dial-up service, to At Home Corp. for $1 billion in stock, according to press reports. When the AT&T-TCI transaction is completed, AT&T will have controlling interest in At Home. The open-access requirement is unlikely in the AT&T-TCI merger, analysts and FCC officials agree, because the issue is complex and not unique to the AT&T-TCI transaction.

To: Jay Lowe who wrote (4830)	1/27/1999 11:04:00 PM
From: Jay Lowe	Respond to of 29970

AT&T to File Lawsuit Against Portland City Council (from Broadband Bob reflector) ====================================== Last week, AT& T announced that it will be filing a lawsuit against the Portland City Council for illegally stipulating that the provider open access to its cable system to receive approval of a franchise transfer from TCI to AT&T. It has also issued warnings to government officials in other markets that are considering the requirement that state the MSO will postpone upgrades if it is forced to make its bandwidth available to ISPs. On the other side of the fence, Arizona Senator John McCain released a statement warning cable operators that he would seek "quasi-common carrier" status for cable if it was successful in dominating the broadband Internet access market. The statement was issued in conjunction with his efforts to convince the FCC to allow baby bells to introduce DSL services without having to create separate subsidiaries. The FCC will vote on a plan to lift long distance restrictions on the telcos for this purpose. In other news, 18 ISPs have sent a letter to the FCC requesting open access regulation. In the letter, the group states that "limiting consumer choice in Internet access will block the diversity and innovation that are today the hallmark of the Internet and will introduce monopolistic practices into the open avenues of the information superhighway." The letter goes on to state, "If cable operators control their broadband networks in a way that erodes the fundamental openness of the Internet, consumers will have fewer choices in products, services, features and price." The letter was signed by MindSpring, the Washington Association of Internet Service Providers, Teleport, MCI-WorldCom, US West, AOL, FlashNet, Internet America, Prodigy, Public Electronics Access to Knowledge, the Oregon Internet Service Providers Association, ConnectNet, Rocky Mountain Internet, CyberNet Northwest, Triax Internet Services, CyberRamp Internet Services, Qwest, and Voyager Information Networks. In Denver, local ISPs and telcos released a survey of Denver residents that was developed to indicate that there was public support for open access. As one might guess, the survey indicated that Denver residents supported "freedom of choice for their Internet service provider", a city council requirement that forced TCI to "allow consumers to have access to the Internet service provider of their choice" and that it is proper for local governments to "require TCI to open its system to all Internet service providers so that consumers will have a choice." The press announcement did not mention whether or not Denver residents considered the term "video programming" to mean "data." AT&T att.com TCI tci.com

To: Jay Lowe who wrote (4830)	1/27/1999 11:07:00 PM
From: Jay Lowe	Respond to of 29970

Media Station Introduces Technology Enabling CD-ROM on Demand (from Broadband Bob Report) (an example of near-term broadband applications) ================================================== Media Station has introduced a CD-ROM on demand technology known as MediaRemote System. Users download a virtual device driver once and are able to access CD-ROM titles from a headend server as if they were accessing them directly from their CD drive. Predictive Block Transfer is used to determine the rate at which the user is connected and to enable platform independence. MediaRemote smells a lot like the Arepa system, but less complicated. Media Station mediastation.com