Earthlink, AOL Time Warner in open access agreement

EarthLink will offer its high-speed Internet service to AOL Time Warner customers in Columbus, Ohio, and Syracuse, N.Y., starting in September as the next phase of an “open access” agreement between the two companies.

AOL Time Warner, EarthLink and Juno Online Services had been testing the concept of offering multiple ISPs via the Columbus system for most of this year. That trial is now ended and this is the next step, said Mike Luftman, a Time Warner spokesman.

“We originally said it was a technology test and it would end around mid-year, which it did, and we would then begin launching multiple ISPs commercially in the second half, which is what we’re announcing today,” Luftman said.

Beyond that, he was vague.

“We’re preparing to talk about how we’re going to be able to implement from a technical point of view, but we’re not ready to discuss that right now. We’re going to be releasing more information on a whole variety of fronts as soon as we can. Now is not the right time,” he said.

Charles Ardai, Juno’s president/CEO, said in a separate interview that the trial had accomplished its purpose.

“The trial really was to see if it was feasible technically to provide multiple ISPs over a single cable infrastructure,” he explained. “The answer is yes, it is possible.”

There had been rumblings that the Columbus trial had been “shut down.” That’s semantics, said Luftman.

“If someone wants to put a negative spin on that, that’s unfortunate, but it’s absolutely without foundation,” he said. “Anybody who has followed this, starting in January, knows that we always said we’ll end the test around mid-year and we’ll launch in the second half.”

Only EarthLink is slated for the September launch but that could change, depending on how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles a Time Warner request to add Juno and High Speed Access (HSA) to the mix.

“We have signed agreements with Juno and with HSA, but all agreements must be approved by he Federal Trade Commission and the latter two were only submitted in the last couple weeks, so the period for action on those deals ends on July 31,” said Luftman. “We’re eager to move forward with that.”

Based on this news, Earthlink shares rose 5.4% to $16.47 in early afternoon trading Monday.