Court's clarification an important one

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: STEVE TAYLOR AND LARRY HETTICK ON
CONVERGENCE
07/06/05
Today's focus: Court's clarification an important one

Dear security.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Analysis of Supreme Court's Brand X ruling
* Links related to Convergence
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Court's clarification an important one

By Steve Taylor and Larry Hettick

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling, in the
case of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association
vs. Brand X, that we believe will affirm how Internet services
will be provided and who will be required (or not required) to
provide them.

Brand X had petitioned the court to force cable operators into
allowing the Brand X Internet service to be offered over their
cable TV infrastructure.

In 2002, the FCC ruled that cable services were an "information
service" and not a "telecommunications service." As information
service providers, cable operators were not required, then, to
share their cable plant with other service providers - unlike
telecommunications services providers who are (at least for now)
required to share their infrastructure. Telecommunications
service providers qualify as "common carriers," and as such are
required by regulation to provide equal access of their
facilities to other carriers. Currently, DSL is categorized as a
"telecommunications service" and so is subject to universal
access.

In its ruling, the court clarified once and for all that cable
services can be classified as information services and are not
subject to provide the non-discriminatory service access of a
common carrier. The court was also supportive of the FCC's
ability to differentiate between an information service and a
telecommunications service. Therefore, we will expect that the
FCC may take a look at DSL infrastructure in this context as an
information service. As an information service, DSL services may
likewise become exempt from the need to offer universal access.
In fact, the incoming FCC chairman believes that DSL and cable
operator access should both be treated equally, so we expect
that the FCC is already busy looking at how to reclassify DSL.

The million-dollar question (or at least a million dollars in
future legal fees) remains over how to treat VoIP. Is VoIP a
telecommunications service or an information service? While
cable companies can lawfully prevent Internet service providers
from gaining access to their cable plant, does the same hold
true if a VoIP service provider wants cable plant (or, in the
future, DSL) access? If VoIP is an information service (as some
VoIP providers contend) does that mean those VoIP services can
be denied access to broadband access?

No doubt, some entrepreneurial lawyer will read our newsletter
and in three or four years we'll be able to update you on the
Supreme Court's view about VoIP and universal broadband access.
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Steve Taylor and Larry Hettick

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates
and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed
information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter,
connect to Webtorials <http://www.webtorials.com/>, the premier
site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and
market research. Taylor can be reached at
<mailto:taylor@webtorials.com>

Larry Hettick an industry veteran with over 20 years of
experience in voice and data. He is currently Vice President
for Wireline Solutions at Current Analysis, the leading
competitive response solutions company. He can be reached at
<mailto:larry@larryhettick.com>
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