Qwest wants in on AT&T broadband networks

(Telephony) Another stone was thrown into the pool of those seeking access to cable's broadband Internet networks when Qwest Communications yesterday asked AT&T Broadband to open its systems and networks in Colorado and Washington State.

In a letter to AT&T Broadband president Dan Somers, Qwest cited a controversial Ninth Circuit Court ruling that found that the transport portion of AT&T's high-speed Internet access services access services is a telecommunications service and AT&T cannot discriminate against competitors by prohibiting access for others to provide the same service.

An AT&T Broadband spokesman dismissed the letter as "public posturing."

"Qwest knows full well about the (AT&T open access) ISP trial in Boulder (Colo.) because they sent us a letter asking us to join that trial. In that letter, they praised us and said they commend our commitment to offering choice," said the spokesman. "Then they put out this press release saying we're not doing it. It's nothing more than public posturing."

Posturing aside, the Qwest request, coming as it did almost in parallel with the Federal Trade Commission's contingency-laden approval of the America Online/Time Warner merger, is emblematic of an industry that is seeking to deal with the open access issue, said Keith Kennebeck, an analyst with The Strategis Group.

"This is a snowball effect now where you're going to see a lot more of this happening," he said.

The questions, Kennebeck said, are still unresolved.

"It's still a matter of defining high-speed Internet service over cable lines. Is it a telecommunications service or is it not a telecom service? If you can define it as either/or will depend on the outcome of how you can make that into law and make open access a law," he said.

In the AOL/Time Warner case, the FTC set a series of rules making certain that Time Warner's broadband networks are open to competing ISPs besides AOL and Time Warner's incumbent high-speed service provider Road Runner.

In doing so, FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky alluded to AT&T's work with multiple ISPs in Boulder, Colo.

"I really do think that open access is the way to go for this country, for consumers, for content producers, for everybody," he said. "We don't have the authority to impose that. I hope the market will produce that."