Pump Action Cable

Blowing up the broadband debate is a tiny Internet company who is asking federal regulators to break the cable industry's online chokehold by allowing outsiders to use television channels to provide competing Internet access.

Internet Ventures of Redondo Beach, California is taking on the full force of the Federal Communications Commission to try "persuade" cable operators to lease channels for Internet access under a 1984 law that never anticipated the fantastic growth of cyberspace.

"It's not rocket science. It's just we need access to the cable channel to make it happen," Don Janke, the company's president, said at a press conference Wednesday.

The FCC is likely to take anything from a few months to many years to chew this one over as there are serious repercussions to the existing cable operators. For example, AT&T and Time Warner offer high-speed Internet access over cable wires, but require that customers buy Internet services from their cable-access units Ñ At Home, in the case of AT&T, or RoadRunner from Time Warner. These customers can access any online content or set up an account with another service provider but they still must pay for the cable-owned provider's services.

While some Internet service providers such as America Online and MindSpring Enterprises are asking Congress or the FCC to ban such exclusive deals, Internet Ventures has a different approach more suited to its service offering. Internet Ventures offers a more limited service to 1,600 cable Internet customers it has garnered in four markets where cable operators allowed the company onto their systems.

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