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The Cable Open-Access War: L.A. Goes the Other Way A tech commission says the city shouldn't press cable companies to open their lines to all ISPs Chalk one up for the cable-television industry. Just weeks after a federal judge in Portland, Ore., ruled that cities can force cable-TV operators to put Internet access companies on their systems, an eagerly awaited report by a Los Angeles technology commission goes the other way. The report, prepared by the staff of the city's Information Technology Agency, is to be used by the Los Angeles City Council to determine whether it will force such major cable operators as AT&T and billionaire Paul Allen's Charter Communications to make their high-speed broadband cable lines available free of charge to Internet service companies such as America Online. The L.A. commission report recommends that the "City should not order cable companies to open their cable modem platforms to unaffiliated Internet service providers," although it does encourage the city to monitor the situation over the next three years for possible change. The report stresses as well that cable companies shouldn't be forced to "unbundle their services" -- that is, allow a company other than themselves to offer Internet service over their cables -- because "cable modem services already permit single 'click through' to unaffiliated content providers." Moreover, the staff report stresses that by imposing regulation on cable companies, L.A. could crimp local cable operators' investment and slow the pace of such new services as telephone service offered by phone companies. "The goal of the City should be to ensure that any new regulation not be so onerous as to capsize existing incentives to deploy advanced services," the report states. The report fits with the position of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who has let it be known through aides recently that he doesn't think the city should step in and impose new regulations on the cable-TV industry. Instead, the mayor prefers that the Federal Communicatons Commission set a national standard for all cities. APPEAL PLAY. The L.A. decision had been eagerly awaited for months, but it took on new urgency in recent weeks following a decision by a federal judge in Portland. He ruled that Portland could force TCI, its current cable-TV company, to make its high-speed wires available free of charge to AOL or other Internet services providers. TCI parent AT&T immediately said it would appeal the decision but added that it would likely withhold rolling out its own Internet service provider, At Home, until it could resolve the issue. The Portland ruling was considered a massive blow to the cable-TV industry, which has been counting on the rush of new revenues from such services as high-speed data and telephone to offset the huge capital costs of laying fiber-optic wires. Competition from such entrenched players as AOL, the industry has argued, would make it less likely that cable companies could generate the revenues needed to compensate for the multibillion dollar rollout of those fiber lines. By Ronald Grover in Los Angeles
EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT
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