Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company The Boston
Globe
April 27, 2002, Saturday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. D1
LENGTH: 528 words
HEADLINE:
VERIZON ATTACKS AT&T'S CLAIM IT'S OPENING NETWORK TO INTERNET SERVICES SAYS
2 DEALS AMOUNT TO WINDOW DRESSING AS MERGER NEARS
BYLINE: By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff
BODY: AT&T Broadband has announced a
second deal to let a competitor sell Internet service through its Massachusetts
cable modem network. But a Verizon Communications executive says AT&T's
claims that it is pursuing true "open access" are "ridiculous
window dressing."
Eric Rabe, Verizon's vice president
for media relations, pointed out that AT&T has just two ISP access deals in
the Bay State - neither of which has taken effect. More than 400 ISPs use
Verizon's nationwide phone network to provide service, he said.
This week, AT&T announced a small
Leominster-based ISP, Net1Plus, will sell service through AT&T's cable
broadband network in Massachusetts, which can reach more than 1.5 million
homes.
In February, AT&T said that the
Atlanta-based ISP EarthLink will begin selling service through AT&T's Bay
State network this fall.
AT&T Broadband
president Bill Schleyer said the deals show "our commitment to . . . create a
true ISP choice environment."
Rabe's response: "Do you
recognize how ridiculous this is? Two ISPs? Let's get serious."
AT&T, Rabe said, is "excluding hundreds of ISPs from their network
and obviously only paying lip service to the idea of opening up" its network to
anything like the extent that Verizon and other Baby Bells are required to
do.
Rabe said the EarthLink and Net1Plus deals "look
like window-dressing" designed to fend off or minimize a government-mandated open-access deal as part of the proposed $72 billion
AT&T-Comcast cable merger.
In recent months,
Verizon and SBC Communications have been pushing for federal legislation to
achieve what they call parity between telephone and cable companies. They
complain that cable companies can force subscribers to use their affiliated
ISPs, while phone companies have to rent parts of their network to thousands of
phone and Internet competitors.
One AT&T
Broadband executive said that "We really do not want to get into a food
fight with Verizon over this."
But AT&T spokeswoman
Jennifer L. Khoury said yesterday that the steps the cable giant has taken
"clearly demonstrate our unwavering commitment to ISP choice."
"AT&T Broadband has long maintained that it would develop a
multiple-ISP platform and launch choice on the network when it was technically
feasible, and on negotiated business terms," Khoury said.
Only in recent months, however, was AT&T released from a deal to
use ExciteAtHome as its exclusive ISP for cable modem customers, she said -
after ExciteAt Home went bankrupt.
The company's
efforts to sign access deals with more ISPs have been delayed, she said, by
having to shift over 800,000 customers from ExciteAtHome to a new AT&T-run
network, as well as by the March conversion of 630,000 mediaone.net e-mail
subscribers to attbi.com addresses. That occurred as a result of a legal
action.
"AT&T Broadband is currently in
active discussions with additional ISPs," Khoury said. She would not predict
when deals might be reached.
Bay State Internet
providers working to sell service over AT&T's network include Galaxy
Internet Services of Newton and Prospeed.net in Tyngsborough. Peter J. Howe can
be reached at howe@globe.com.
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