America Online Inc. is in the cross-hairs of a conservative Washington, D.C.
lobbying group.
The Frontiers of Freedom organization is launching a
counter attack to AOL’s campaign to try to open up cable TV networks for
its Internet service.
At a new Web site,the group blasts the AOL-led Open Net Coalition, which in recent months has
been lobbying Congress and the FCC to prevent cable companies like AT&T and
Time Warner from monopolizing the cable infrastructure they’ve built.
According to the Frontiers’ site, AOL is “calling for the heavy hand of
government to stifle competitors and to regulate access to the Internet.”
But one Open Net Coalition member said conservative group has it
backwards. Brent Spooner, president of ConnectNet, a regional Internet
service provider in Dallas, said competition and innovation will suffer if
cable and phone companies are the only ones able to offer broadband
Internet services.
“The argument boils down to competition versus monopoly. If it hadn’t been
for small Internet service providers, there would be no Internet,” Spooner said.
ConnectNet and other Texas ISPs were unable to convince local regulators to block the recent transfer of TCI’s cable
access business to AT&T unless AT&T provided them with open access. Similar
efforts have failed in other U.S. cities.
But Spooner claims that ten thousand Dallas area Internet users signed on
in support of open access. He believes that consumer’s desire to see
communications competition will ultimately defeat attempts by groups like
the Frontiers of Freedom. In the meantime, Spooner is telling ConnectNet
customers to boycott cable Net access and stick with their pokier analog
modems.
“I tell them don’t do it as a matter of principle,” Spooner said. “If
everybody moved over to cable, innovation on the Internet would stop or
slow dramatically. The consumer would pay more, get less, and have more
restrictions.”
Representatives of the Frontiers of Freedom did not return phone
calls. The group is led by former Wyoming senator Malcolm Wallop, who
served as campaign manager for Steve Forbes’ 1996 presidential run.
