America Online,
which owns just about everything, announced last week it is partnering with its
junior partner, Time Warner, to offer high-speed, cable modem Internet access in
San Diego County.
EarthLink, one of AOL's biggest
competitors, also announced last week it is partnering with Time Warner to offer
high-speed, cable modem Internet access in San Diego County.
Finally, Time Warner continues to offer its own Road Runner high-speed,
cable modem Internet access in San Diego County.
Huh?
It's tied to an issue known as "open
access," or, in the case of those who oppose it, "forced access."
What you call it depends on which side of the fiber optic
cables you're sitting on -- or own.
What it means is
that San Diegans in the geographic areas Time Warner serves (generally including
areas north of I-8, up to Del Mar, and west of I-15 through Rancho Bernardo, as
well as Coronado) now will have more choices for cable modem Internet
service.
If you choose Time Warner, you'll pay $44.95 a
month if you're also a cable TV subscriber; $49.95 a month if you're not. You
can have up to five e-mail accounts and have personal Web pages with 5 megabytes
of space.
Choose AOL and you'll pay $54.95 a month for
the cable modem and still have unlimited access to AOL's U.S. network of dial-up
connections. Or, you can pay $44.95 a month for the cable modem and then $2.95
an hour for an AOL dial-up connection if you want it.
AOL is also offering up to seven e-mail addresses and 12 megabytes of
Web space per screen name.
Choose EarthLink and you'll
pay $41.95 initially (regularly $49.95 a month), get eight e-mail accounts and
10 megabytes of personal Web space per e-mail account.
And there are other differences among the three services.
Beginnings
The open
access movement took hold in 1999, when a group called the OpenNET Coalition
(made up of mainly smaller Internet service providers) started lobbying to open
cable modem networks for use by ISPs that did not have their own cable modem
networks in place.
Then, in late 2000, the Federal
Trade Commission approved the merger of AOL and Time Warner with several
conditions. One of them was that AOL Time Warner had to offer third-party ISPs
access to its high-speed networks.
Access, of course,
would not be free. ISPs would pay Time Warner to use its pipes. Similar
arrangements exist between other dial-up ISPs and other cable companies.
EarthLink signed up early and often. San Diego is the 28th
cable modem market that EarthLink has joined. In others areas, such as Seattle
and Boston, EarthLink has partnered with AT&T Broadband.
Opponents of open access have called it
downright un-American.
The cable companies, they
contend, built the high-speed networks with private funds -- not public ones as
with phone lines -- and should have complete control of their networks.
Proponents argue something much more crucial is at stake:
freedom of information and freedom of choice.
Without
open access, "cable operators retain the legal right to censor
messages, to limit the size and nature of files which can be uploaded and
downloaded, and to favor content provided by their commercial 'partners' and
'preferred vendors,' " argues the Media Access Project, a Washington, D.C.-based
public interest law firm.
The Center for Digital
Democracy, also in Washington, D.C., says that "an Internet without open access requirements would hardly resemble the Internet as we
know it today ... The power to discriminate would be given to those who control
the conduit -- the few gigantic service providers that will remain. They would
have gatekeeper status.
"Such an Internet would more
closely resemble the limited choice of cable television, rather than the varied
options of the World Wide Web."
'Information
service'
Last month, the Federal Communications
Commission voted to classify cable modem service as an "information service,"
and not as a "cable service" or "telecommunications service."
That partially means that large companies such as AT&T
Broadband, Cox Communications and Comcast do not have to provide open access. So far, AOL Time Warner remains operating under the
condition for open access set by the FTC.
At the time of the FCC vote, commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said that
classifying cable modem service as an information service "will promote our goal
of fostering a 'minimal regulatory environment that promotes investment and
innovation in a competitive market.' "
But many do not
agree with the FCC's decision.
Media Access Project
filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals on behalf of Consumers Union, the
Consumer Federation of America, and the Center for Digital Democracy,
challenging the FCC's decision. So did EarthLink, Verizon and Brand X
Internet.
"The high-speed Internet has the potential to
support unprecedented innovation and diversity in commercial, civic, nonprofit
and personal communications," said Mark Wahl of the Center for Digital
Democracy.
"But in order to do so, the FCC must ensure
that these services are guided by the same principles of openness and
non-discrimination that promoted the development of the Internet in the first
place."
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