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Georgia Orders BellSouth to Offer High-Speed Internet Service to All Consumers

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

Oct. 22--BellSouth must make its high-speed Internet service available to Georgia consumers whether they're BellSouth voice telephone customers or not, the state Public Service Commission ruled Tuesday.

By a 3-2 vote, the PSC ruled that BellSouth's practice of offering its popular high-speed Internet service only to its own voice telephone customers violates state law.

Tuesday's order capped a 16-month case against BellSouth brought by competitor MCI, which said the BellSouth policy was anti-competitive. People want high-speed Internet, and BellSouth's dominance in the high-speed market and its policy were robbing consumers of something else they want --- choice among phone service providers, MCI argued.

But even commissioners approving the order expressed reservations about what it might mean in the future.

Commissioner Stan Wise said he voted against BellSouth because telephone competition in Georgia is "still fledgling by anyone's standards."

But Wise also offered an amendment to the order, saying he understood BellSouth's complaint:

"It's like they're saying, 'How long, oh Lord, until we get our competitors out of our back pocket.""

The amendment, which passed unanimously, says the PSC will revisit the competition issue again in 30 months.

It also drew snorts from its intended beneficiary.

"Thirty months is a lifetime in this industry," BellSouth spokesman Joe Chandler said.

The high-speed Internet battle is part of a national debate over when and how the regional Bell operating companies should be required to give competitors access to their technologies.

Those companies aren't supposed to tie usage of a competitive part of their operation --- like phone service here --- to one in which they exercise market dominance, like BellSouth's DSL high-speed Internet service.

BellSouth argues that the competitive field is broader than the PSC acknowledges.

The company developed its DSL Internet service in the first place to fend off competition from cable, said company lawyer Bennett Ross.

It's also part of the package the company hopes will lure consumers to choose BellSouth's telephone service, he said --- a feature, like MCI's Friends and Families calling plan.

The regional Bells won a round in the national debate earlier this year when the Federal Communications Commission ruled that they didn't have to offer high-speed Internet lines for lease to competitors at wholesale cost, according to national consultant Nancy Kaplan of Boston-based Adventis.

The regional Bells do have to offer phone lines for lease to competitors at discounted rates.

Of BellSouth's claim that high-speed access is just another phone package feature, "that's a bit of a stretch," Kaplan said.

Commissioners Wise, David Burgess and Angela Speir voted for Tuesday's order.

Commissioners Robert Baker and Doug Everett vote against it.

Baker argued that MCI is advertising at least limited high-speed Internet service on its Web site now, proof that BellSouth's competitors don't need what the order gives them.

Everett put it more bluntly: "They need to stop being parasites," he said.

The fight isn't likely over, as was clear from some of the muttering from lobbyists following Tuesday's ruling.

"Well, more work for the federal courts," one said, shrugging.

BellSouth is fighting similar state rulings in Florida and Louisiana, according to the Georgia attorney general's office.

Ross said some kind of challenge is also likely here.

MCI, meanwhile, put out its own statement on the ruling.

"This decision ... is good news for Georgia consumers and customer choice," said Brian Sulmonetti, MCI regional director for public policy. He said the ruling ends a practice that was "an attempt to shore up [BellSouth's] monopoly in the Georgia voice market."

At least one BellSouth consumer agrees.

"I think that's great," said Paige Seibert of Roswell, who tried to switch to MCI two years ago, then switched back to BellSouth after realizing she'd lost her high-speed service with EarthLink, which used BellSouth's lines for that service.

She said she later realized BellSouth had switched her to its own DSL Internet provider when she came back, at a cost of $200. The company later refunded the money, she said, but not without a fight.

Seibert said she's stayed with BellSouth since, but only for fear of losing high-speed Internet access.

"We feel stuck," she said. "We're not fans. This means we won't be stuck with BellSouth. Now it seems like you're going to have some choices."

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To see more of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ajc.com

(c) 2003, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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