Update: High court hands big victory to cable
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ruling Monday that required cable operators to open up their high-speed Internet lines to rivals.Update: More details via Reuters:
The decision is a big victory for the Federal Communications Commission and major telecommunications companies, including Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable and SBC Communications.
On the losing side are small Internet service providers, including Earthlink, and a host of local governments.
The Supreme Court on Monday overturned a ruling that cable high-speed Internet lines must be opened to rival online service providers, handing a victory to the Federal Communications Commission.
By a 6-3 vote, the justices overturned a U.S. appeals court ruling that cable high-speed Internet service, known as broadband, has a telecommunications component and is subject to traditional telephone network access requirements.
The appeals court overturned an FCC decision in 2002 that cable broadband was an information service and therefore free from most traditional telephone service rules, like requirements to lease network access to rivals.
posted by Fergie @ 6/27/2005 07:52:00 AM
1 Comments:
Neither outcome would have been good for small Internet providers. By classifying certain components of Internet services as "Telecommunication" services, all of those small Internet providers would have become subject to mountains of legislation and red tape associated with that label. USF fees would probably have been the first to be imposed upon them. In addition, ask a few CLECs whether their arrangements with the ILECs has been a benefit to them in the past few years.
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