SiliconValley.com - Good Morning Silicon Valley

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

String and a Dixie cup? What kind of self-install kit is this? The  
cable and telecom industries have good reason to celebrate today, now  
that the Supreme Court has give cable them a duopoly on the high- 
speed Internet market. In a 6-3 decision, the court overturned a  
federal court decision that would have forced cable companies to  
share their infrastructure with competing Internet service providers.  
In doing so, the court upheld the decision of the Federal  
Communications Commission that broadband cable modem companies are  
exempt from mandatory common-carrier regulation.  Public Knowledge   
president Gigi Sohn was quick to fire back. "The court's decision  
today raises the question of whether Congress, in tackling its next  
revision of the Telecommunications Act, should act to ensure that  
communications, content, and applications are allowed to pass freely  
over the Internet's broadband pipes," Sohn said. "We believe Congress  
should do so, because 'net neutrality' is a worthy goal that not only  
will promote free speech and creativity on the Internet, but also  
will benefit those who provide broadband connectivity by making that  
connectivity more valuable." Other ISPs, left in the cold by the  
ruling, saw dark days ahead. "I think it will have a lot of negative  
fallout in other areas," said Jim Pickrell, president of Brand X  
Internet. "Next thing you're going to get the phone companies saying,  
'If the cable companies don't have to sell transit over their  
networks, why do we?' " If that happens, Pickrell doesn't see a  
future for his business, or for others like it. "Virtually everyone  
that I know that is in the Internet service over the last few years  
has closed, and those that haven't probably will. If you don't have  
any right to interconnect, if you don't have access to lines, than  
how are you going to run an Internet service? What are you going to  
do, get some string and Dixie cups?"

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