Turning on the access: Click! Network, WideOpenWest open networks to ISPs

As the open access issue continues to heat up among the bigger ISP players, two small cable providers have decided to open their networks of their own accord.

Tacoma Power, a Washington state-based utility company that recently added cable capabilities to its service, launched its Click! Network in December, following a year-long trial. The company will wholesale network access to ISPs such as HarborNet, a nearby provider that has signed on as Click!'s first - and for now, only - customer.

The Click! Network arose from a project meant to upgrade the utility's network. With the additional infrastructure, officials quickly learned they could offer voice, video and data.

Through Click!, Tacoma Power provides broadband services from DS-1 up to OC-48. Click! sells data transport services to some local business customers but otherwise has removed itself from the retail side of the business, preferring the role of carrier's carrier.

"We provide it, ISPs ride it," said Cyndi Wikstrom, marketing and operations manager for Click!. "We wholesale service to them, they charge their end users."

Click! hopes to attract between five and eight ISPs to its network. To draw quality providers, the division has developed a list of performance and service criteria, such as connecting customers within 10 business days and offering technical help during certain hours, to which providers must adhere.

If asked, Click! will provide end customers with a list of all ISPs on its network. It also will encourage providers to use the Click! Web site to inform customers of their service and prices. "We have no reason to favor anybody," Wikstrom said.

HarborNet already has gained about 200 customers through Click! and is adding between 20 and 30 customers a week, said Ken Lombardi, the ISP's system administrator.

"In a sense [the open access architecture] gives ownership of the Internet back to the people, as opposed to big corporations," Lombardi said. "Since Click! is a public utility that answers to their owners - the people of Tacoma - they have a different approach to it. They're very customer-oriented."

Also on the trail is WideOpenWest, which launched in October and will focus on Denver, Portland, Ore., and Dallas for its initial network build, said Michael Steinkirchner, vice president of marketing for WideOpenWest.

The company hopes customers will choose its services over other ISPs on the network, he said, but it will let customers know they have a choice. "We think that it will differentiate us. Over time, a lot of the incumbent cable operators are going to be either forced to become open or they're going to want to," Steinkirchner said. "We're just taking the lead position because we think that's where it's going to end up in time."

WideOpenWest announced its first franchise agreement, in Jefferson County, Colo., late last month and is in discussions with several ISPs that may want to sign onto its network, which is being built. WideOpenWest plans to offer its own broadband Internet access, digital cable TV and telephony services.

But at least one analyst thinks competing providers should take advantage of the time they have alone in the market to build a content- and customer-driven business that ultimately will win the open access war.

Furthermore, only the moves made by companies such as AT&T, Time Warner, Cox Communications and Comcast will matter in the end, said Rich Christner, vice president with Mercer Management. "It's the decision-making of those four or five [companies] that are at issue, not the smaller ones," he said.

But as a wholesaler with municipality backing, the decision for Tacoma Power's Click! to open its network was easy. The company could have made more money had it gone with a proprietary solution, but the economic stability of the city was at hand, Wikstrom said. "The drive behind it is to help the city of Tacoma with economic growth and development. We knew this would invite ISPs to locate in the city of Tacoma."