High court to review high-speed Net rules

From...

by Aaron Pressman

(IDG) -- The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review a dispute over the legal status of high-speed Internet traffic running on cable television lines, putting the high court in a position to either accelerate or delay the availability of such broadband offerings across the country.

Nearly 4 million people receive high-speed Internet service over cable wires, compared with 1.5 million customers who subscribe to services running on telephone lines. Although the two services are almost identical from the customer's point of view, telecom-based service is highly regulated and open to competition, while cable service is unregulated and lacks competition.

IDG.net INFOCENTER The Standard's Main Page The Standard's Commerce News Sign up for daily news from The Standard The Standard's Company Research Related IDG.net Stories Cable subscribers want their ITV Juice up your high-speed Net connection Oftel speeds up local telephone line unbundling Features How to get discovered on the Web What broadband revolution? Napster won't remain the same Visit an IDG site Choose a site: IDG.net CIO Computerworld Darwin Dummies.com GamePro.com The Industry Standard ITWorld.com InfoWorld.com JavaWorld LinuxWorld Macworld Online Network World Fusion PC World Publish.com SunWorld IDG.net search

Cable companies typically mandate that their customers use a cable-owned Internet-service provider such as Excite@Home, while telecommunications carriers, by law, must give customers a choice of providers. That could change, depending on how the Supreme Court rules in the case accepted for review Monday.

During the past year, lower courts in different parts of the country have taken conflicting approaches to classifying the status of Internet service over cable wires. For example, one court ruled that the service was a form of cable television, while another found that it was a telecommunications service. A third court decided that cable service fit into a more nebulous category referred to as "information service."

The appeal that the Supreme Court agreed to hear takes on a 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that broadband service over cable wires is a form of information service. The case dealt with a narrower issue, but will force the Supreme Court to at least consider the broader question of how the law applies to high-speed Internet service over cable. A decision is expected later this year or early 2002.

April's 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit found that Federal Communications Commission rules limiting the amount utility companies could charge cable companies for attaching cable wires to utility poles did not apply when cable companies offered Internet service. The court relied on a section of the 1996 Telecommunications Act that allows the FCC to set utility-pole rates only for cable and telecommunications providers.

As a result of that ruling, utilities dramatically increased the fees they charge cable companies for attaching lines to telephone poles. According to the FCC, one company hiked its rate from $5 to $38 per pole.

Asia poised for broadband boom
January 5, 2001
DSL providers continue cutbacks
January 4, 2001
Review: Satellite-based Web access
December 29, 2000
U.S. classrooms without broadband poised to fail, report finds
December 19, 2000
Analysis: Warp speed Web access is finally here
December 5, 2000

Cable subscribers want their ITV
(The Industry Standard)
Juice up your high-speed Net connection
(PCWorld.com)
Oftel speeds up local telephone line unbundling
(IDG.net)
U.S. Robotics shows DSL, cable modems
(InfoWorld.com)
Warp speed Web access: Cable vs. DSL vs. everything else
(PCWorld.com)
Breathing new life into copper lines
(Network World Fusion)
The best broadband sites
(PCWorld.com)

The Cable Modem Information Network

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.