Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company  
The Boston Globe
March 16, 2002, Saturday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. C1

LENGTH: 518 words

HEADLINE: AT&T BROADBAND PRESSED ON VOW MARKEY ASKS ABOUT PROGRESS ON ACCESS FOR NET SERVICE FIRMS

BYLINE: By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff

BODY:
US Representative Edward J. Markey, the Malden Democrat and ranking member of the House telecommunications subcommittee, is pressing AT&T Broadband to explain why it is apparently failing to live up to its two-year-old promise to offer Bay State cable modem subscribers a choice of multiple Internet service providers by July 1.

AT&T this week reached a deal with Atlanta-based EarthLink to allow EarthLink to resell broadband Net access over AT&T high-speed networks in Greater Boston. EarthLink, the first ISP to reach an "open access" deal with AT&T, said it expects to launch services by late this year in Greater Boston.

   But in a letter to AT&T chairman C. Michael Armstrong that Markey released yesterday, Markey noted that AT&T in 1999 agreed to allow subscribers a choice of multiple ISPs "within all of its broadband operations in Massachusetts no later than July 1, 2002."

That commitment came in a "memorandum of agreement" AT&T signed with backers of a planned 2000 state ballot question. The initiative petition sought to require cable broadband operators in the state to have a choice of multiple ISPs, not just the provider affiliated with the cable firm. Ballot question sponsors dropped the campaign after winning AT&T's support of the memorandum of agreement.

Around the country, "open access" advocates have been clamoring for cable modem systems to offer consumers the same choice of Internet service providers that subscribers to telephone-based Internet access can get from Baby Bells, which are required to share their networks with ISPs.

On Thursday, however, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-1 that Net access over cable modems is an "information service" that should be largely free of governmental regulation, such as requirements that competitors should get access. It is likely to adopt a similar policy for the Baby Bells' digital subscriber line businesses, although the FCC could still impose open-access requirements.

Earlier agreements, such as a requirement that AOL Time Warner give access to at least three ISPs as a condition of the $106 billion merger in 2000 of Time Warner and America Online, would remain in effect.

Without directly accusing AT&T Broadband of failing to keep a promise, Markey sent Armstrong a letter with a series of five pointed questions asking Armstrong for "clarification as to how this recent announcement for ISP choice in 'Greater Boston' conforms with previous announced agreements for Massachusetts consumers across the state."

AT&T Broadband spokeswoman Jennifer L. Khoury said last night that she could not immediately comment on the status of the July 1 deadline, but said the company was preparing a response to Markey.

"The EarthLink agreement is more sweeping than our initial planned small commercial rollout" of ISP choice in selected cities that AT&T had promised, Khoury said. She added that AT&T has been "quite busy" handling the failure of the ExciteAtHome network and switching mediaone.net e-mail customers to attbi.com. Peter J. Howe can be reached by e-mail at howe@globe.com.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO, Representative Edward J. Markey of Malden

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