TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Cable Execs Say They're Not Blocking Outside VoIP

Cable Execs Say They're Not Blocking Outside VoIP

Jack Decker (jack-yahoogroups@withheld)
Tue, 05 Apr 2005 11:16:23 -0400

http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160403733

Would cable companies block independent Internet services like Voice
over IP from their broadband offerings? Not a chance, according to
some top execs who spoke at the National Cable & Telecommunications
Show Sunday. By Paul Kapustka

Advanced IP Pipeline

SAN FRANCISCO -- Would cable companies block independent Internet
services like Voice over IP from their broadband offerings? Not a
chance, according to some top execs who spoke at the National Cable &
Telecommunications Show here Sunday.

Those sentiments were echoed later in the day at a panel discussing
government issues, where a chief legal staffer on the House Energy &
Commerce committee said that members of that committee are "very
concerned" about incidents like the recent port-blocking case
involving Vonage and Madison River Communications, and that upcoming
telecom reform legislation might include specific wording prohibiting
the practice.

According to Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft who is now
chairman and the largest shareholder of Charter Communications, and
Thomas Rutledge, chief operating officer of Cablevision, their
companies shouldn't have to worry about violating any such
law. Rutledge dismissed the idea of selectively blocking services out
of hand, even though players like Vonage might compete with
Cablevision's own VoIP offering.

"If you look at our high-speed network, Yahoo's on it, Google's on it,
AOL's on it and voice is on it," Rutledge said in an interview after
Sunday's keynote panel discussion. "Our customers expect to access to
the sites our network enables them to have, and the applications that
they're able to reach. For us to do anything otherwise would be
against our economic interest."

Kyle McSlarrow, the newly minted president and CEO of the NCTA, said
cable-company CEOs he has talked to since he's been on the job are
"absolutely" against selective blocking of Internet services or
applications.

Full story at:
http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160403733

How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home:
http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html

If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/

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