Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

ITWorld:

U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday questioned why the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would classify cable modem broadband as unregulated, while it regulates DSL (digital subscriber line) and other services offered by large telecommunications carriers.

In the Brand X vs. FCC case, a group of Internet service providers has opposed the FCC's attempts to classify cable modem service as an unregulated information service, effectively shutting out independent ISPs from riding on cable broadband networks and selling their services to cable modem users.

During oral arguments, Supreme Court justices questioned how cable modem service providers can argue that broadband access and Internet functionality are an inseparable service when the FCC has required large incumbent telecom carriers to sell access to their broadband networks to competing Internet service providers (ISPs).

Thomas Hungar, deputy solicitor general at the U.S. Department of Justice, told justices that the FCC had the authority to separate cable modem service from traditional telecommunication service.

In recent years, the FCC has moved away from classifying DSL as a telecommunication service, he noted. Incumbent local telecom carriers have traditionally faced regulation, including requirements they share access to their networks with competing carriers, because the four large incumbents inherited large parts of their networks after the breakup of the government-sanctioned AT&T Corp. monopoly in 1984.