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FCC Chair Promises Quick Action on Broadband After Supreme Court Ruling

June 29, 2005
The Supreme Court decision giving cable companies exclusive use of their Internet circuits has the telephone companies in a dither, since they are required to sublease their DSL lines to rival Internet service providers. But fear not: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is racing to the rescue.

Broadband Access • Critics: FCC Inaction Slows Economic Development • Few Are Neutral in Net Neutrality Battles • Google Petitions FCC Over Verizon's Use of Wireless Spectrum • House Committee Grills FCC Over Wireless Auction • FCC's Martin: No Opening Of Wireless Networks • FCC Releases Broadband Report, Admits Data is Faulty • Verizon Wins Wireless Spectrum Auction • Bush Declares Broadband 'Connection Accomplished' • Google Will Bid In Wireless Spectrum Auction • Verizon Agrees to Stop 'Unlimited' Claims • Google Challenges Verizon Over Lobbying Of FCC • Sen. Kerry Wants New Broadband Policy • Verizon Wireless Challenges Spectrum Auction Rules • FCC Passes Compromise Rules For Wireless Spectrum Auction • Google, AT&T Square Off Over Wireless Broadband • Senate Wants Better Data On Broadband Deployment • FCC Takes a Closer Look at Broadband Deployment • Groups Urge FCC To Create Wireless Broadband Competition • FCC Chair Grilled By Congress Over Favorable Treatment of AT&T, Verizon • FCC Rolls Out New Rules On Video Franchising • FCC Approves AT&T-BellSouth Merger • AT&T Offers Net Neutrality Concessions To Win Merger Approval • FCC Plays Santa for AT&T, Verizon • Consumers Sidelined as Broadband Battles Rage • Wireless Broadband Still Expensive, Service Still Spotty • High-Speed Internet Overtakes Dial-Up in Market Share • U.S. Still Lags In Broadband Access • Municipal Wi-Fi: The Internet's Next Step? • Verizon Limits Its "Unlimited" Wireless Broadband Service • California Bill Seeks to Jumpstart Cable Competition • GAO: Broadband Access Difficult To Measure • Congress Wrestles with Net Neutrality --- More ...

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says the Commission will move quickly to restore "regulatory parity" between telephone and cable companies. But whether Martin will be able to deliver on his promise is unclear. There is one vacancy on the five-member commission and filling the four occupied seats are two Democrats and two Republicans.

It's not at all clear that the Democrats will want to endorse the Bush Administration's broadband strategy, which basically calls for splitting the market between the big phone companies and the big cable companies.

The Democrats have tended to listen sympathetically to consumer groups who argue that having essentially two broadband providers per market is anti-consumer, while the Republicans resonate to the property rights argument; the high-speed lines are, after all, owned by the phone and cable companies.

Cable and phone companies contend that they have little incentive to invest billions of dollars to upgrade their networks if they must then turn around and sell discounted access to such competitors as AOL, Earthlink and COVAD.

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