|
March 19, 2007 — (TopHosts News Brief) — EarthLink, along with other ISPs and Time Warner Telecom, went to court on Friday to dispute the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision to free wireline telecom carriers from line-sharing obligations.
The 2005 FCC decision puts telecoms like Verizon and AT&T on an equal regulatory footing with cable modem providers, giving them no obligation to lease their broadband lines to competitors.
In 2002, the FCC declared that broadband cable modem operators are not common carriers and classified them as information services. This recognition freed them of rules and regulations associated with common carrier status, along with requirements to share Internet lines with competitors at discounted rates.
The FCC rules enable incumbents to sell access to their DSL lines at market rates, but the ISPs say Verizon and AT&T are setting the rates too high, discouraging competition.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Time Warner attorney David P. Murray as saying that “Ultimately, competitive Internet-access services are going to fall by the wayside” if the regulations remain.
| 
Email
Print
Comments
Newsletter
Submit Articles
Search
US Medium Businesses to Spend $7.8B On Storage & Security
There are currently no comments posted for this article.