Bandwidth battle

Until the next generation of the Internet arrives, there is an increasing recognition by content providers as well as delivery mechanisms such as ISPs that since bandwidth is very desirable, it is worth fighting for.

The U.S. District Court in Oregon ruled that Portland could require AT&T to open its cable lines to rivals, and that case is being appealed.

The FCC Chairman William Kennard indicated that a national policy is needed to govern access to the Internet via cable, but the FCC favors a nonregulatory approach and urged the cable industry to act "responsibly" in opening access to its lines.

But the issue isn't likely to disappear soon from the agendas of municipalities. Both San Francisco and Los Angeles are currently studying the issue.

The faster bandwidth offered by cable wasn't such a big issue a year ago when the landscape was littered with many small players possessing small geographic fragments and streaming audio and video had not reached the mainstream population.

Now, after a frenetic six months with cable companies acquiring and selling each other several times over, the remaining few cable enterprises command sizable geographic presence. In addition, streaming audio and video are de rigeur for today's teenagers.

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