|
DAVID CONNELL
The Federal Trade Commission has again delayed a final ruling on the America Online Time Warner merger, with regulators and company representatives failing to reach an agreement on open access and other issues.
As the FTC review drags out, cable companies and Internet service providers such as Prodigy and Earthlink continue to examine how the eventual outcome will affect their business plans.
FTC commissioners were expected to rule on the merger late last week but declined to do so to give representatives from AOL and Time Warner more time to negotiate open access provisions with regulators.
"The parties have committed in the last 24 hours to offer new proposals to address competitive issues in connection with the proposed merger," the FTC said in a statement. "The Commission has elected to delay action for a period of not more than three weeks."
It now appears that the two sides are clashing over how to frame open access provisions, commission sources say. Some commissioners are pushing for an "open access lite" approach that would force AOL Time Warner to sign at least one alternate ISP to their system before offering AOL's service, sources say, but would not require the company to sign more than two or three competing ISPs.
Other commissioners do not believe that approach goes far enough, while others argue Time Warner should get a competing ISP on its system before the merger is approved.
A major concern at the FTC is how much it will have to monitor the companies if and when it passes the merger.
Cable executives say it is unlikely the FTC's antitrust ruling on open access would likely affect only AOL Time Warner.
"Any access rules attached to the merger would be Time Warner specific," says industry consultant Steve Effros. "They would have nothing to do with the industry."
"This merger isn't going to have much of an impact on other cable operators," he says. "You could point to all kinds of doomsday scenarios like Disney is right now. But the truth is, they were big before, and didn't they try to control the market?"
AT&T Broadband CEO Dan Somers agrees. "From my vantage point, the impact of (any decision by FTC on the merger) will impact AOL, not me," he says. "Nothing the FTC decides on will roll over to the rest of the industry."
The Federal Communications Commission is also reviewing open access, and its ruling could affect the entire industry.
Meanwhile, competing ISPs continue to lament the trouble they have encountered in trying to solidify carriage deals with Time Warner.
Back to this issue
|
