"We continue to seek more widespread access," said Baker in reference to Earthlink's deal with Comcast.
Comcast announced its deal with United Online in February 2002, a time when it was seeking regulatory approval of its merger with AT&T Broadband and consumer advocates were lobbying regulators to impose sharing requirements on it. The company has since agreed to deals with a total of six Internet providers.
Commissioner Michael J. Copps has criticized FCC cable policies.
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Comcast said it entered partnerships in an effort to benefit from the added marketing power. But a year and a half later, Comcast officials say they are no longer so keen on the idea. Comcast is now the nation's largest cable Internet provider, with 4.4 million Internet subscribers, and it continues to accumulate new customers at a brisk pace. In the second quarter this year, Comcast added more than 350,000 new subscribers.
"If you don't need ISPs for basic connectivity to the Internet, what value do they bring to our customers?" asked Joe Waz, Comcast vice president for external affairs and public policy counsel.
The FCC plans to appeal the 9th Circuit's decision opening cable networks to competitors, and agency officials have said they would like to eliminate similar regulations governing the telephone line-sharing arrangements.
Not everyone agrees with that approach. In a speech earlier this week, FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps warned that the FCC's policies would allow a few cable and telephone giants to dominate the Internet. "I believe that if the commission's present mindset is fully implemented, we will look back, shake our heads and wonder whatever happened to that open, dynamic and liberating Internet that we once knew," Copps said.
Robert Carp, president of Massachusetts-based Galaxy Internet Services, began offering high-speed Internet service over Comcast's lines within the last 90 days. He is charging customers $45.95 a month -- roughly the same price that Comcast charges in the region of New England served by GalaxyNet.
Like other ISPs', Galaxy's goal is to distinguish itself from Comcast by offering added e-mail features, more capacity to store digital pictures and tighter online security.
Carp said that given the trends in the industry, he has little choice but to offer his customers an alternative to the slow dial-up connection he can provide them. Customers are moving so fast to the broadband connections dominated by big telephone and cable companies that the slower dial-up Internet access business is destined to disappear, said Carp. "It's going to be a buggy whip," he said.
