Description:
Something suspiciously resembling a double standard exists in US regulation of
broadband access carriers. Incumbent local exchange carriers?ILECs?are
required to open their networks to competing service providers, while cable
television companies are not. Where did Congress and the FCC get it right? In
the telco case, where open access is required, and there is a nascent competitive
market for telephony and DSL services, or in the case of cable data networks,
where consumers usually have no choice but to buy their service from the cable
company's affiliated ISP? Or is disparity the best policy?