WASHINGTON-Just because the telecommunications industry is urging the Federal Communications Commission to order the cable industry to open up its cable modem platform to competing Internet service providers, that does not mean the FCC should require “open access” on all platforms-including wireless, said John P. Frantz, vice president and associate general counsel for Verizon Communications.
“I don’t think the logic of my argument suggests that you need regulation on all of those platforms. The only argument for regulation is there is a lack of consumer choice. That is, someone who controls the facilities acts as a bottleneck and limits your access to content or limits your access to the ISP of your choice. … Where you have only one broadband player, or sometimes two, in a market, there is a greater risk you will have no way of avoiding it and regulation is required,” said Frantz.
The cable industry and the telecommunications industry have been locked in a battle at the FCC over whether the cable companies should be required to allow their cable modem customers to sign up with alternative Internet service providers. The telecom industry refers to the battle as “open access” and the cable companies refer to it as “forced access.”
Last month, the FCC released a notice of inquiry on the open access question, which also asked questions on wireless open access.
Frantz made his comments at an open access media briefing sponsored by the Washington Legal Foundation. He was joined by Daniel Brenner, senior vice president for law and regulatory policy for the National Cable Television Association.
Brenner believes that the emergence of broadband access to the Internet and the lack of regulation has led multipoint multiple distribution service carriers, now owned by WorldCom Inc. and Sprint Corp., to move from video to broadband access. This transition of the MMDS industry and the extensive fixed-wireless network of AT&T Corp. were spurred by the deployment of cable modem services by the cable industry, said Brenner.
The telecom industry generally believes in regulatory parity and since the FCC requires them to share the facilities they use to carrier digital subscriber line service, the cable companies should at least have to open up their platforms.
“The goal the commission should be pursuing is one that promotes multiple broadband platforms. And that is what they say they are doing but that is not the [impact] of their policies,” said Frantz complaining about the line-sharing rules.
FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth moderated the WLF event.
