U.S. Supreme Court to review cable Internet case

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review an appeals court ruling that opens up cable networks to competing Internet service providers (ISPs).

The case positions telephone-based ISPs against cable companies. The cable industry and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hope the Supreme Court will side with the FCC and agree that cable broadband Internet service should not be as firmly regulated as phone-based broadband services.

In October last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco ruled that cable operators should allow competing ISPs on their networks. That ruling went against a decision by the FCC, which in March 2002 had decided not to regulate cable broadband Internet services as cable service providers or as common carriers, but rather as providers of an information service, which has less stringent provisions.

With the light FCC regulation, cable companies were not required to share their networks with other ISPs. Brand X Internet Services LLC of Santa Monica, California, challenged the FCC in court, which led to the appeals court decision last October.

The FCC and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) sought and were granted a stay of the court’s decision pending a request for the Supreme Court to take the case.

The FCC is pleased that the Supreme Court has now decided to review the case. “The 9th Circuit’s decision would have grave consequences for the future and availability of high-speed Internet connections in this country,” FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a statement issued on Friday.

Powell has said in the past that requiring companies to share their networks may discourage network owners from investing in new technologies.

The NCTA is also hopeful that the Supreme Court will affirm the FCC’s standpoint that there should be a deregulated environment for high-speed cable Internet service, Robert Sachs, the group’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

But ISP Earthlink Inc., which along with several other big name ISPs supported Brand X in its case, believes the Supreme Court will affirm the appeals court ruling. Affirmation will finally give cable modem users a choice in high-speed Internet providers, Dave Baker, vice president of law and public policy at Earthlink said in a statement.

Arguments in the case before the Supreme Court are to be presented in early 2005 with a ruling expected by July next year, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said.