IP: Getting a lock on broadband

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org>
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 19:15:53 -0600 (MDT)
To: dave () farber net
Subject: For IP: Getting a lock on broadband

Getting a lock on broadband

How the FCC is paving the way for a few big companies to control everyone's
high-speed Internet access.

By Jeffrey Benner

June 7, 2002 | The Federal Communications Commission is quietly handing over
control of the broadband Internet to a handful of massive corporations.

In March, the FCC ruled that cable companies do not have to open their
networks to competing Internet service providers, or ISPs. A FCC proposal to
extend the same exemption to DSL service is pending. If approved, the
proposal
will allow local phone companies, now down to four "Baby Bells," to deny
other
DSL providers access to local phone networks. Currently, all DSL providers
are
guaranteed access to phone networks under the FCC's interpretation of
federal
telecommunications law.

Telecommunications, cable, and media companies (increasingly one and the
same)
and their allies in Congress have campaigned for years to deregulate most
aspects of the telecom industry. Under the current administration, and the
leadership of FCC chairman Michael Powell, those efforts have finally begun
to
pay off.

The trend profoundly concerns consumer advocates and some Internet policy
experts. They warn that if the FCC goes through with its plans, cable
companies and the Baby Bells will quickly establish a monopoly on broadband
service over their own networks. Consumers accustomed to thousands of
competing ISPs to choose from for dial-up narrowband Internet access will be
left with just one or two options for broadband service. One worry is that
the
lack of competition will yield high prices and poor service. But the far
more
urgent concern is that media conglomerates will use their control over
broadband pipes to restrict access to content, information, or technologies
that compete with their own content or otherwise threaten their interests.

"The past two decades on the Internet have been a uniquely consumer-friendly
environment," says Mark Cooper, research director at the Consumer Federation
of America. "Now that is up for grabs. The essential ingredient of the
Internet was preventing the owner of the facilities from dictating content.
Now, eight cable companies will decide what the public will be offered, not
8,000 ISPs." The CFA, along with the Media Access Project, the Center for
Digital Democracy, and the Consumers Union are challenging the FCC ruling on
cable broadband in federal court....

(Full text: 
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/06/07/broadband/print.html)


------ End of Forwarded Message

For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/