Cable-Access Plan May Face FCC Obstacle

The Federal Communications Commission’s staff has recommended the agency turn down a proposal by a small California Internet company that would require cable TV operators to open their cable channels to rivals to bring high-speed Internet access to homeowners.

The FCC is expected to endorse the staff recommendation, which is currently being circulated among the five commissioners. Agency officials declined to comment on the report.

Redondo Beach-based Internet Ventures Inc., which provides Web service to about 30,000 subscribers over conventional phone lines, had requested the FCC rule that independent Internet firms were entitled to access to cable facilities under the same terms that cable operators now provide leased access to major cable program suppliers.

The company’s petition, filed with the FCC in June, raised one of the most contentious issues in the cable industry: whether cable operators should make their networks available to all comers as phone companies must do, or control their high-speed Internet services and other content over their lines on their own terms.

Internet Ventures sought to lease cable lines to offer a hybrid system of access to Internet content.

Although cable operators could voluntarily embrace Internet Ventures’ plan and charge them the same regulated leased-access rates as they charge others, cable operators balked.

FCC officials said Thursday that although they favor efforts to get cable operators to open up their networks and support the wider deployment of high-speed Web access, cable leased-access rules did not apply to Internet content.