Powerful Cable TV Interests Win Again

* Apparently Mayor Richard Riordan has joined Chairman William Kennard of the Federal Communications Commission in fiddling while Rome is burning over the issue of access to the high-speed Internet pipes of cable monopolies [“FCC Chief Cites Need for Net Access Policy,” June 16.]

It is unfortunate that Alan Arkatov, chairman of the Information Technology Commission in Los Angeles, was forced to resign over this issue. His view that L.A.’s cable monopolies should provide access to competing ISPs as a condition for being awarded new cable franchises is pro-competitive and pro-consumer.

And it has been affirmed in a recent federal court ruling in Portland, Ore., which says that local franchise authorities could require their cable operators to open their networks to Internet providers other than their own. Obviously the powerful cable TV lobby has once again triumphed over the public interest.

Let’s hope that the courts will offer a level playing field to consumers as an effective counterbalance while the FCC drags its feet on another important public policy issue.

ELLIOT BECKER

San Diego