Fighting for the Net Users--Oh, and AT

Television ads have recently popped up in Los Angeles and San Francisco asking government regulators to keep their hands off the Internet.

Behind the ads is a Washington-based group--fittingly called Hands Off the Internet--that describes itself as “a coalition of Net users united in the belief that the Internet’s phenomenal growth stems from the ability of entrepreneurs to expand consumer choices and opportunities without worrying about government regulation.”

But the group is primarily funded by business interests, including AT&T; Corp., which is at the center of a heated debate over “open access” laws that would require cable operators who provide high-speed Internet access to make their networks available to competitors.

With the Internet Tax Freedom Act in place to guarantee a three-year moratorium on e-commerce taxes, the main item on the group’s agenda is open access. Cable companies say such laws would reduce their financial incentive to upgrade their networks for Internet access. That, in turn, would slow the roll-out of broadband services, they say.

“We think it’s pretty simple: Where competition is working, government shouldn’t intervene,” said Chris Wolf, a Washington lawyer who is president of Hands Off the Internet. In addition to going online via cable, consumers can get high-speed Internet access from phone, satellite and wireless companies, he said.

It’s no surprise that kind of talk appealed to AT&T;, which is set to become the largest cable operator in the country if it completes its purchase of MediaOne Group. AT&T;, along with several smaller companies and business groups such as the Iowa Cable Assn., formed the Hands Off the Internet coalition earlier this year and asked Wolf to run it.

Neither Wolf nor the group’s executive director, former White House speech writer Peter Arnold, is willing to discuss the group’s finances in detail. But as the 800-pound gorilla in the group, AT&T; appears to control the purse strings.

“We get contributions from all our members,” Arnold said. “Clearly, some members contribute more than others.”