Ruling Weakens Cableís Attempt To Monopolize Net Access

A federal judge ruling Friday, June 3 on a matter affecting the Portland, Oregon area, said that AT&T and other large cable TV companies cannot prevent America Online and other Internet providers from offering service over cable lines. This is the first ruling to uphold the hotly debated right of local governments to require cable companies to allow access to Internet competitors. This issue is about who will pay for and profit from the rollout of high-speed access to the Internet and related services. If the ruling is upheld, the ruling would allow other cities to mandate the same access.In theory, consumers would have more choices, better service and lower prices as m ore firms compete to provide Internet service over cable lines. But the cable industry contends that it requires billions of dollars to make cable wires Internet-ready and therefore the use of such wires to access the Internet should be exclusive to cable companies. This issue is critical to the future of Internet services because broadband Internet access over cable wires can deliver data as much as 100 times faster than over phone lines. That speed is the key to providing such services as video on demand, interactive advertising and e-commerce.AT&T, the largest long distance telephone company, has undertaken a series of acquisitions that will make it the largest owner of cable television systems in the U.S. AT&T has virtually bet its future on the potential for cable systems to deliver high-speed access to the Internet. AT&T says that it will file an appeal to the ruling by U.S. District Judge Owen M. Panner, which upheld Portlandís right to set conditions on the transfer of a local cable franchise to AT&T.